#he mostly gets along with hyrule and warriors

[sisters-sideblog]

Hero of Men! (he/him) Dispenser of life wisdom, sometimes whether you want it or not. Also the artist of the group; he carries around a little book of watercolor sketches.

[powdermelonkeg]

You're big on Zelda, so I'm curious. How would you rewrite TOTK, if given the writer's room?

Fun question! *cracks knuckles* Let's answer it.

I've answered about the disconnect between BotW and TotK before, so I'm going to take some of those ideas and run with them here.

I'm taking the intended route, for the sake of keeping coherence rather than just making up an entirely new Hyrule from scratch. Link and Zelda are the same as they are in BotW.

To start off, I like the Zonai.

I like that they're an entirely new race of people in Hyrule. I love how weird-looking they are. I love that they're not human race #87.

I also love their bastard not-Zonai lovechild thing. If we saw more examples of Zonai, I would love for this funky lil dude to be part of them, kind of like how the Zora have a ton of variation between them.

So why don't we do that? Why don't we give them a kingdom?

And why don't we put some meat on the bones of what was already built?

There are Zonai-esque ruins all over the Depths, mostly in mines for Zonaite.

Their color palette matches. Rauru's braids and Sonia's earrings match brightblooms.

And the three dragons, who have Zonai features (segmented, color-edged hair, long ears, blunt muzzles, scale beard mouths), could have been a catalyst.

A catalyst for what, though?

It starts with the Depths themselves, and the dragons breaking free.

See, in TotK, the three elemental dragons all dive in and out of the Depths chasms. There's no explanation as to why, and the only explanation we have for the chasms forming is that it was like...geysers of Gloom.

However, the dragons in BotW are confirmed to have carved these canyons:

So let's go back in time a little.

The Zonai live in the Depths. They're underground, away from all the chaos that Hyrule has ever had to endure. They worship the bargainer statues as gods, they collect the souls of those above that drip down into the world below.

They have a rich mining industry, and coliseums for their greatest warriors to test their mettle against captured monsters.

They have their Secret Stones, and the one who's allowed to hang onto those is their leader.

That'd be young Prince Rauru.

The elemental dragons, Dinraal, Naydra, and Farosh, are testaments to why no one can be allowed to have the Secret Stones. They were consumed by their power, literally.

One day, they break free, as if summoned by an unknown force. They tunnel through the ground and into the sky, connecting the world below to the one above.

The Hylians cautiously venture below, or the Zonai above. Prince Rauru, keeper of the Secret Stones, and Sonia, High Priestess of Hylia, meet.

They fall in love.

They marry.

Their marriage marks a unity between the Surface and the Depths.

(Maybe throw in a lil Skyward Sword continuity, mention that while Hylia sent the humans to the sky, the Zonai fled underground to avoid Demise, to keep the Secret Stones out of his grasp. You don't even have to name drop him, just say they went down to avoid destruction.)

Suddenly, Hyrule (the center part of the map, based around the Great Plateau, not the whole sub-kingdom conglomerate it exists as in BotW) undergoes a technological boom. Ganondorf, neighboring leader of the Gerudo, is interested. He talks trade with now-king Rauru, but there's the sub-plot of trying to get his secrets, which he steadily grows obsessed with.

Meanwhile, the Gerudo make their own expedition into the Depths.

There. The stage is set.

Now Zelda falls into the past.

She's found by Rauru and Sonia. Adopted as their daughter, more or less.

Also, the two of them have a small child. Nintendo, you CAN'T set them up as "they're her ancestors" and then kill them childless, descendants don't work like that. Zelda's immediately endeared to the kid, who reminds her of Link. Lil half-Zonai girl with a wooden sword who swings it at anything that moves. There are memories, it's cute.

In the past, Zelda witnesses, real time, Ganondorf going mad with power. They get along well at first, he's cordial, polite, a model diplomat. But she finds his troops in places they shouldn't be, confronts him about it and gets brushed off.

She tells Rauru, he's unwilling to throw suspicion onto Ganondorf. They're semi-friends and diplomacy is important! He's got to run this kingdom right. He can't fail, this is the biggest thing he's ever done!

(Sprinkle in a parallel to BotW Zel's fear of failure)

Some of the memories fill in gaps about Rauru's power, also. He's got what Link can do, minus Recall. Ultrahand and Fuse mainly, but Rauru's been experimenting with Ascend, excited because it'll make passage between the Depths and the Surface so much easier, and we see where Zel gets her scientific excitement from. Regardless of how different they look, they ARE family.

Ganondorf and Rauru get into a fight one day. A BAD fight. Maybe because Zelda tipped Rauru off, and despite telling her no, Rauru looked into it anyways. Regardless, they march out in opposite directions, and Zelda overheard it in the hallway. As Ganondorf leaves, he gives her the most SCATHING glare.

He then declares war on Hyrule.

Rauru makes a bid for allies, trying to get enough manpower to fight Ganondorf's impressive military. It's a struggle at first, but Zelda steps in, being the leader she's skilled at being and telling the others how crucial it is that they help. Ganondorf, meanwhile, turns to forbidden arts in his rage against Rauru, gets infected by Gloom/Malice, becomes scarily powerful. First Blood Moon. The Gerudo are kind of unnerved by him.

We see Zelda and Sonia helping with the war. Sonia's got light powers, Zelda's are stronger, together they can destroy entire ARMIES of monsters, saving their warriors on the battlefield. A few instances of Little Princess trying to be involved like the grown-ups are, getting huffy when she's told no.

In the aftermath of each fight, Rauru runs around, sealing away the monsters' latent energy with green spirals. That's where the Shrines come from, though in the past, they're Luminous Stones—it's all faded by present day, the light bled out of them.

Sonia is on the battlefield against Ganondorf one fateful night, Little Princess wanders onto the field, both the girls panic about it, and Sonia tries to run away with her while Zelda affords them cover. THAT'S when Ganondorf strikes her—he's fast like a ninja, rushes past Zelda, strikes Sonia.

She falls. Little Princess tumbles.

Zelda races to Little Princess's side, picks her up to run away with her as Ganondorf gets Sonia's stone, and he transforms into the Demon King. He raises his army. Little Princess screams, and we see an uncontrolled blast of Hylia's power, like an erratic attempt at what Zelda did at the end of BotW.

It fritzes, Zelda hugs her tight and ducks down to shield her, and the power cascades across the battlefield, affecting monsters AND people alike. The war is in shambles. Ganondorf stares at the child and her guardian, and retreats in a hurry.

Cue Rauru running to their side.

He grieves his wife. Little Princess is kept safe by Zelda. The Gerudo shun Ganondorf and join Rauru's side, and everyone involved in the war dedicates everything to one final assault against Ganondorf, one trap to finally END him, to force him into the Depths and fight him on the Zonai's own turf. The Secret Stones are distributed. Rauru knows what he has to do, and at the climax of the final battle, he uses his Secret Stone to amplify his sealing magic, knowing it'll kill him in the process and locking Ganondorf away in the Depths.

Except, it's not that simple.

Gloom bursts out of the newly trapped Ganondorf's chest, flooding the Depths, eliminating everyone in its path. That includes the Sages, the assaulting army, and the VAST majority of the Zonai. Its sole purpose is to gather enough strength over time for Ganondorf to break his shackles, because the Gloom wants OUT.

(Subtly implied that the Gloom is the first iteration of Demise's curse of hatred, maybe.)

And Zelda is alone. Trapped in the past, stuck with Little Princess, her Secret Stone, and the last of Mineru's notes.

Gloom continues to fume out of the Depths, so they're sealed off. The Blood Moon keeps spawning new monsters, so Little Princess and the remainders of the construct caretakers are sent up to the sky, for her protection. Zelda's the one that orchestrates it. Her people once hailed from the sky, and it's always been known as a place of safety for them.

Is this self-referential to the history she's building, or a Skyward Sword reference? Who knows.

They go skyward.

Then the Master Sword appears, and Zelda knows what she has to do. It's compounded, of course, by crushing guilt over the fact that Sonia's death happened on her watch. She tells Little Princess to look out for the world ahead, tells her to be strong, and brave, and everything she wishes her dad had told her. Then ends it with a final message.

"I'm leaving you something very important. Take good care of it."

Then she goes off alone to become a dragon.

Present day.

Link's not guided by Rauru, he's guided by a strange, beautiful woman who looks kind of like Zelda (albeit with Zonai hair, eyes, and long claws), who has a deep regret for the world below and who knows the lonely world above like the back of her hand. She teaches him the basics of his powers as he visits the shrines.

The Great Sky Island is otherwise normal.

You go to Hyrule. The Light Dragon's the one that breaks the cloud barrier, and as she does so, she sheds a single tear. By the time you get to the tear's location, it's spread a mural of the memory it contains around it.

Whenever you Recall a tear, the Light Dragon sheds a new one somewhere else, and it's up to you to follow.

You're chasing Zelda, twice over.

Besides that, Hyrule's Surface is...largely unchanged. I'm still upset that the pirates assaulting Lurelin weren't ACTUAL pirates, so guess what, they are now. Splinter faction of Yiga. Also, River Zora take over Lake Hylia, there's a spat between them and the Sea Zora, and Yona is the princess of the Rivers.

Then you've got the Depths.

That's where you find the ruins of the Zonai civilization, and you start piecing together the world it contains on your own. You aren't told, you're SHOWN.

Rauru's ghost finds and guides you here. He has a moment of "hey, isn't that MY arm?", upgrades your abilities or shows you how to use them more efficiently (ups your build limit, shows you how to un-Fuse, teaches you DEscend, gives you Autobuild, things like that), then DIES-dies. You escort his poe soul to a Bargainer statue.

The biggest change to the Depths, though, is that under the Gerudo Desert, you find PEOPLE.

So remember how the Gerudo launched their own expedition into the Depths in the past? How the Gloom killed almost everyone and the world below was sealed off?

There were a sparse few survivors of the Zonai, and some unfortunate Gerudo researchers that also got trapped. The people down there now are descendants of both. They're not Zonai anymore, though.

They're Lomei. They evolved like how the Rito evolved from the Zora in Wind Waker. Their tribe name comes from the Zonai word for "loneliness."

Regardless, they're initially inhospitable to Surfacers, because Surfacers are how they ended up how they did. If you sneak into their city, you're captured, like a few unfortunate Zonai Survey Team members that have wandered in, only YOU can escape via Ascend. OoT Gerudo parallel.

You can earn the Lomei's trust by doing things for them (maybe beating all three labyrinths as a rite of passage?), and then they let you into their cities. They've got their own brand of tech based off of old Zonai designs. One of the Lomei scientists is working on a mechsuit—that'll be the sage that Mineru passes her stone down to. And it fits doubly, both because the Lomei ARE the descendants of the Zonai and because the Lomei technician and Mineru are both scientists.

The Lomei people give you more pieces to the complicated Zonai-Hylian puzzle, and they're the ones that first tell you the legend of the dragons-from-Secret-Stones. So you can either learn it from them OR get it revealed in Zel's later memories.

Besides that, the present plot is pretty much as normal. Still the same bosses. Still the same sages-help-with-everything, though each sage you rescue gives you another piece of what really happened at the final fight (rather than the same cutscene over and over), telling you about how Rauru sacrificed himself and the effect it had on the rest of the Depths.

I will change where the Ganondorf's Army fight takes place, though. It's ACTUALLY very hidden, like the game was trying to imply it to be when you chase around Kohga. You do still have to do that, but he accidentally directs you to a place that's hidden in the tiniest crevice near Hyrule Castle, one that's very easy to miss and sitting in a veritable sea of Gloom. Once you finish the Kohga quest, a poe hovers outside of the crevice, which leads into an even deeper chasm that leads to the Underdepths.

The poe's your help to get through the maze there, and wherever it goes, Sundelions bloom at the corners. If you go early, before getting everything done, you have to navigate that place yourself, and it's a nightmare.

But you do it. You get to where everything started, and you beat the army, then Ganondorf, then he shoves his fist down his throat and goes dragon.

As he breaks through the ground and curls around Hyrule Castle, he SHATTERS it. The building crumbles to smithereens, crashing into the Depths below.

You beat Demon Dragon, Zelda catches you on her nose, it's over. You're in the spirit realm over sleeping Zelda.

The poe appears over your shoulder, drifts away from you, then materializes into Sonia. She says nothing, just activates Recall, turns Zelda back to normal, then cradles her in her arms. She gives her a kiss on the forehead, looks at you, then says the same line Zelda said to Little Princess ages ago, with the single change of one word.

"I'm leaving you something very important. Take good care of her."

She fades, as does the Spirit World.

You're falling.

Zelda's falling.

You catch her.

She wakes up, sees you, then hugs you and sobs into your shoulder.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Roll credits.

Bonus for the memory completionists, the True Ending has Zelda meeting the grown Little Princess up at the Great Sky Island, reconciling with her, both of them saying how proud they are of each other. Then Little Princess turns into a poe, and Zelda promises to take her to the Depths so she can be with her parents again. As they walk away, Sonia's poe tails after them.

And THAT is a way longer post than I expected to write. Whew.

[adrift-in-thyme]

Can I hear your thoughts on this panel?

I feel that Hyrule looking at Legend as Four says that is important somehow... What do you think?

Hmmm

Well one thing I’ve noticed in the last couple of updates is Hyrule and Legend have been around each other A LOT

Practically ever since Hyrule finished healing Twilight and helping Four they’ve been hanging around each other. In close proximity too. Which, given that Legend usually only stands close to the people he trusts (principally Sky) is a big deal.

If Dawn pt. 5 is any indication, it seems that Hyrule is mostly initiating this lol

But Legend is letting him

Excuse me while I fangirl over the downfall duo for a moment. ALDNDLSDJSLDNSL THE BROTHERS EVER

Ahem ok let’s continue

Now, I’m overdue for a LU reread so correct me if I’m wrong BUT I seem to recall that they’ve never stayed this close to each other before. Could just be that they take comfort in one another’s presence. Seeing the panel you shared, though, I’m gonna say it’s more than that.

Idk if they’ve figured out their place in the timeline yet (I’m assuming not due to how everyone acted in Timeline Talk pt. 1). That doesn’t mean, however, that they haven’t begun to guess. Jojo has hinted at many interactions that the Links have had offscreen. Plus, Legend and Hyrule met up before they ran into the others. They’ve had time to get to know each other. I guarantee they’ve got suspicions about their places in time.

Which leads me to believe Hyrule is afraid of losing Legend. He must have figured out that Legend was a hero sometime before his journey began. Meaning, somewhere along the way he perished and the darkness he struggled so hard against spread over Hyrule anew. With Twilight just having escaped death (plus the cryptic comments he continues to make regarding Time’s fate), I’m sure untimely demises are on Hyrule’s mind.

I don’t think he knows Legend’s fate (unless there’s something in his games that hints toward the previous hero’s fate). But I believe he wants to. I can’t be the only one who sees the striking similarities between Legend and Time. He likely came to the realization that a guy like Legend will most likely die a wanderer or a warrior (doesn’t mean he did. I don’t like to think he did. One blorbo with a tragic end is enough XD But still). And being a hero and Legend’s friend he’s wondering if maybe, just maybe he can change that.

If it’s possible to know a future occurrence, it could be possible to transform it, right?

All image credits to @linkeduniverse

[skyward-floored]

Here’s my (very late) birthday fic for @kikker-oma, it’s based off her art for day 17 of whumptober!

(Which at least one other person has already written a fic for but I didn’t realize until after I’d already started writing it so any similarities are pure coincidence 😅)

https://www.tumblr.com/kikker-oma/731400216730828800?source=share

I hope you like it Oma, happy (very belated) birthday!!!

————————————————————

Something was wrong with Legend.

Time could see it in the way the teenager walked, his steps heavy and dragging. How he lingered at the back of the group and barely spoke, mostly just nodding along to whatever it was Wind was telling him, and didn’t go out of his way to speak to anyone, his words sharp and vicious when he did.

Normally Time wouldn’t think twice about Legend being a little extra antisocial and standoffish. He was often grumpy (though Time had seen his soft interior once or twice in the brief time they’d been traveling together), and it wasn’t surprising his mood would get a little more severe now and then.

No, the worrying thing was that it had been several days since the behavior began, and it hadn’t gone away yet.

If anything, it had gotten worse.

Legend seemed to get more lethargic and snappish as they traveled across the wilderness of Wild’s Hyrule, keeping to himself even more intensely, and largely ignoring the rest of them. He’d gotten paler too, in just the few days of whatever this was, and Time was only growing more concerned.

It was worrying. Incredibly so.

Time had been keeping a closer eye on Legend ever since he’d realized something was up, and most of the others seemed to catch on that something was wrong as well, but nobody had confronted Legend about it yet. Or if they had, hadn’t succeeded at all in fixing the problem. Twilight had tried to tactfully approach the subject just that morning, and Legend had nearly bitten his head off in response.

Time wasn’t sure what to do, and he wasn’t the only one.

After all, none of them liked to admit something was wrong with themselves— Time himself was certainly guilty of that— but Legend, prickly as he was, was one of the worst. Confronting him head-on about whatever the issue was would only make him more likely to deny anything was wrong at all, as Twilight had already demonstrated earlier.

But someone needed to get through to him, before something snapped.

And later that day, Time finally got a chance.

They’d reached a good spot to stop for the night, Time watching Legend like a hawk the entire trip there. The veteran had nearly tripped on nothing a few times, but had covered it up so quickly nobody could call him out on it.

They had eaten dinner fairly quietly for once, Wild roasting some mushrooms and meat of some kind. Legend kept to himself during the meal, barely picking at his food, and staying out of the conversation. Everyone pretended not to watch, but it was almost laughable how obvious it was that they were all keeping an eye on him, the worry hanging like a cloud over the group.

And Legend seemed to have noticed the increased scrutiny, as later when the heroes were all settling down for the night— cleaning up dinner, getting out bed rolls— Legend stood and told them all he was going to patrol around.

“Really? Are you sure?” Hyrule piped up, and Four frowned from next to him when Legend nodded.

“...By yourself?” the smithy asked.

A very slight edge of concern lay in his voice, and Legend’s shoulders immediately hiked up to his ears.

“What, you think I can’t handle myself?” he shot back in a sharper tone than normal, and Four quickly raised his hands in a peaceful gesture.

“Of course not Vet, I know you can,” he reassured, and Warriors stepped in.

“Exactly. It’s just dark, and we’re in unfamiliar territory, that’s all,” Warriors put in, and Legend turned to glare at him.

“Yet that’s never an issue when Twilight goes off by himself,” Legend snapped. “Shove off Captain. I’m the veteran, remember? I’ll be fine.”

Then before anyone could stop him, he disappeared into the trees.

All of them watched in an uncomfortable silence as Legend stomped away, and Time stopped Twilight when he went to follow him, placing a hand on his arm.

“Best we wait until he’s calmer,” he said, and Twilight exhaled, then sat down. “...And probably best someone who hasn’t made him mad yet go.”

“I think that’s just you at this point,” Sky pointed out, and Time paused, then sighed as he realized Sky was right. Every single one of the rest of the group had been the target of Legend’s ire in the past few days. Time somehow was the only one who had escaped unscathed... which made him the perfect candidate to follow Legend now.

“All right,” he agreed somewhat reluctantly, and settled down to wait.

“Hylia be with you,” Wild muttered as he cleaned his cooking pot. “You’re gonna need her.”

(...)

Half an hour later, as the others either went to bed or tried to busy themselves, Time got up and headed in the direction that Legend had stormed off in.

The moon was large and bright in the sky, and Time almost didn’t need the lantern he’d brought to find Legend’s trail. Though despite the moonlight lighting his path and the assistance of the lantern, it took Time much longer to find the hunched-over figure of Legend then he’d thought it would.

Legend had gone a fair distance from camp, and plunked himself down on a large fallen tree, his head bowed as he stared at the ground. He didn’t react when Time stepped a bit closer, and Time frowned as he watched him for a moment.

Were his shoulders shaking?

Time purposely crunched a few leaves to signal his presence, and Legend’s ear twitched in response. He didn’t do anything else though, and didn’t look at Time when he carefully sat down beside him on the log and set down the lantern.

An owl hooted nearby, and Time listened to it a moment before letting out a quiet sigh.

“They can be an overbearing bunch, can’t they?” he remarked in the silence, the owl going quiet.

Legend flicked an ear, and didn’t respond.

“...They mean well, though,” Time continued when the silence stretched between them. ”They’re not trying to be overwhelming, or even nuisances. They’re... just concerned about you, Vet.”

Legend let out a little huff of air that almost sounded amused.

“Right,” he said flatly. “Well they shouldn’t bother, there’s nothing to be concerned about.”

His hand tightened where it was held around his waist, and Time couldn’t help but notice when it did. Legend’s face seemed paler in the moonlight shining down on it as well, but when he saw Time staring at him, he scowled.

“Go back to camp old man, I’m fine,” he muttered.

Time took a deep breath. Nayru grant me wisdom, here’s where it gets tricky.

“The way you’ve been acting the past few days seems to speak towards a different answer,” he said in a level voice.

“Well whatever it is you think you’ve noticed is all in your imagination,” Legend shot back, clutching his middle even tighter.

Time looked at it again, and paused in what he was about to say as a thought suddenly dawned on him. He couldn’t remember for sure, not everything at least, but if he was right... would Legend really do something so detrimental to his health like that?

“Legend... when was the last time you ate anything?”

Legend’s mouth turned into a thin, hard line.

Ah-ha.

“That’s none of your business.”

“It is if you’re pushing yourself not to for some reason,” Time said, firmness creeping into his tone as he watched the boy. “We have plenty of supplies Legend, why aren’t you eating?”

“I never said I wasn’t,” Legend snapped back, glaring at him. “And even if I am, maybe I’m just not hungry.”

“Not hungry at all?” Time asked with a raised eyebrow, thinking back to the past several days. “Legend, I don’t seem to recall you actually eating anything recently, you can’t just starve yourself.”

“Oh yeah? Well maybe it would be better for everyone if I did!”

Time blinked in surprise, and Legend’s anger seemed to falter a moment, something horribly vulnerable cracking through the prickly mask he’d thrown on. But he quickly tossed it back over himself, despite the tears trying to gather in his eyes, and his expression reverted back to the anger he’d possessed a few moments ago.

“Link,” Time said quietly, and Legend looked away. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. Okay? Would you shove off?”

“Legend,” Time said imploringly, and Legend’s ears pinned back against his head.

“Look I’ve handled it alone before, I can handle it now,” Legend suddenly bit out, his voice thick with emotion. “It’s just— nothing!”

“Nothing wouldn’t make you raise your voice like this,” Time pointed out.

“Well it is!” Legend said in a slightly quieter tone, though it still shook in anger.

Something in Time’s chest ached at the rawness in his voice and the tears that had returned to his eyes. Legend’s lip was trembling, but he was firmly biting down on it to stop it from doing so, and he looked like he was close to losing what control he had left.

Time studied him more intently, trailing carefully over skin flushed with anger, over shaking fists and shoulders, at the hand still held close to his middle.

The shakiness, refusing to eat, the paleness of his face...

Time’s eye widened as a new thought crossed his mind, and he exhaled, reaching a careful hand towards Legend.

“Link, you’re sick, aren’t you?” Time asked in a soft voice, and Legend’s eyes widened, then narrowed. “That’s at least part of this, isn’t it?”

Legend slapped away his extended hand.

“Go away,” he bit out, something truly dangerous in his voice, but Time was nearing the eye of the storm and he wasn’t prepared to back out now. “Go back to camp, wander in the woods or whatever, I don’t care. Just leave.”

“Legend,” Time said, shifting closer. “You can’t keep ignoring this. You nearly fell over earlier, how long have you been feeling ill?”

“There’s nothing to ignore,” Legend snarled. “Just— just leave me alone.”

“I can’t do that,” Time said, his voice soft, but firm. “You need help, and I won’t—”

“I don’t!” Legend shouted, his voice hoarse. He tried to get to his feet, but Time quickly caught him by the wrists, stopping him from leaving. “Just— let go!”

Time shook his head, and Legend tried to jerk out of his hold with no success.

The teenager’s wrists were warm in his grasp, and Time could feel them shaking, though he wasn’t sure if it was from anger or the illness Legend was fighting. Either way, he wasn’t making any headway in escaping, even though Time was sure Legend would have normally been halfway across the forest by now.

Legend tried to swing a fist at Time, but he didn’t succeed in the slightest, the older hero still holding him tight.

“What’s wrong, Link?” he asked, and Legend only struggled harder in his grip.

“Let go!”

Time shook his head, and Legend let out a cry of frustration.

His eyes were glassy with tears as he glared, and his breath came in short pants as he tried desperately to free himself. Legend’s facade of being perfectly fine had dropped in his anger and panic, and Time was now wondering how on earth any of them had missed just how bad things had gotten.

“Leave me ALONE old man!” Legend shouted.

But Time kept holding him, equally gentle and firm as he tried to lurch away. He met Legend’s eyes, stormy and swirling with emotion, and gave his hands a soft squeeze.

“Legend, son, please let me help you,” he said softly.

Legend’s face twisted with rage.

“Don’t call me that!” he nearly screamed, and tried one last time to pull Time’s arms out of his grip.

But he was too weak to free himself, the sickness affecting his strength. Legend couldn’t do anything but struggle, his breath coming in quick gasps, wrists trembling in Time’s hold as he tried to free himself with one last burst of desperation.

Then he crumpled forward, a sob wracking his body.

Time’s eye widened, and he caught Legend, immediately running a hand through his bangs. His forehead was hot where Time’s fingers brushed it, and Legend was shaking so hard he felt like he would fall apart, Time soothing him as he sobbed again.

“Legend, easy,” Time whispered, panic trying to burrow into his chest. He’d never seen Legend like this, screaming and crying and showing his emotions in such a blatantly un-Legend way. And he didn’t exactly have experience with soothing sobbing, feverish teenagers, but Legend was acting so strange...

There’s something else at play here then just a virus, Time thought worriedly, Legend letting out an unsightly hiccup.

All of Legend’s strength seemed to have been used up by their argument, and he lay nearly limp against Time’s arm, shivering, with tears still escaping the corners of his eyes.

“What’s wrong, Link?” Time asked again, careful and soft.

This time Legend didn’t try to pull away or scream at him. He merely let out a quiet breath, one that shuddered on the exhale.

“I... I don’t...” Legend croaked, his eyes squeezed shut. “I can’t... again.”

“You can’t what?” Time asked, and Legend swallowed, tears trickling down his cheeks. Time shifted his grip a little so that Legend’s head rested more comfortably on his shoulder, and waited for him to continue.

“...Care,” Legend whispered finally. His hand tightened where it was fisted in Time’s shirt. “Every time I-I care, someone gets... hurt. I get hurt, I... I can’t again, not...”

He let out a shuddering breath, and his eyes squeezed more tightly shut.

“I don’t want you all to care,” he whispered.

Time looked down at the boy in his arms, shivering and feverish and trying so desperately to fight through it himself, and exhaled.

Oh.

Legend curled into himself at the admission, tears still falling down his cheeks, and Time suddenly saw himself, trying to keep a safe distance from everyone who tried to care for him, afraid of anyone slipping past his barriers and finding the scared little boy hiding behind so desperate for love.

Time swallowed.

We’re all horribly similar, are we not?

“...Being known is a terrifying thing,” Time said after several moments of silence drifted past, voice barely a whisper.

Legend shuddered again.

“I used to think it impossible,” Time whispered. “To be known, but not hurt. Drifting along and staying unattached seemed best, safer. Even when I was in desperate need of help, taking care of myself... seemed like it would hurt less. Without Malon, I have no doubts I would still be that way.”

Time sighed, and looked down at Legend, not even sure if the words were getting through his fever.

“Legend... you don’t have to tell us everything. But we are a team. Brothers, in spirit if not by blood. By merit of those things alone... we care for you,” he said simply. “I have no doubt that if any one of us were in the condition you’re currently in, you would be caring for them as fiercely as anything.“

Time shifted, and met Legend’s eyes, puffy and red, and bright with fever and exhaustion.

“Let us do the same for you.”

Legend closed his eyes and let his head fall back against Time’s shoulder, face scrunched slightly with pain. Several long moments went by, and then Legend let out an exhausted exhale, and gave Time the smallest nod he’d ever seen.

“...Sure. Fine,” he muttered, almost so quietly Time didn’t hear him. “...But only because my head is pounding so hard I can’t... think of anything better at the moment.”

“Trying is half the battle,” Time said with a faint smile, and Legend sighed again, heavy and exhausted.

Time pulled Legend up into his arms, and noted with a bit of worry that Legend was rather frail in his hold, still shivering. And normally the veteran would protest up and down about being carried, but Legend was completely silent, only a few leftover sniffles coming from him as Time hooked the lantern he’d brought to his belt so his hands would be free.

It truly was a miracle Legend had lasted this long without collapsing in front of them all— but Time knew the power of stubbornness when it came to this sort of thing. Malon was still mad at him for that time he’d tried to milk the cows when he’d had that broken wrist.

It was still impressive, though.

I wonder how long he’s had a fever, he wondered as Legend shifted in his arms. One this intense wouldn’t just appear... it must have been at least a day or two.

“...Don’t tell the others,” Legend suddenly whispered as Time began to walk back to camp, and Time looked down at him. “About... you know.”

Time nodded. “The only thing they get to know about is you being sick,” he promised, and Legend relaxed a bit further in his arms.

When they got back to camp, everyone stared, but nobody commented on Legend’s tear-streaked face, or the fact that he was shivering and being carried. Twilight made eye contact with Time, looking at Legend in concern, and Time mouthed the word ‘fever’.

Twilight’s face softened with understanding, and he quickly put out Legend’s bedroll so Time could get Legend into it.

Legend didn’t resist, and the others didn’t directly address the fact that he had obviously been hiding the fact that he was sick from them all. They merely went about their business, occasionally drifting by where Legend was lying in his bedroll, offering a few words, or some food, or just quiet company that offered to place a wet cloth on his forehead.

And when Legend finally fell asleep, he looked more relaxed then Time had seen him in weeks.

[hugsandchaos]

Dawn Of The Second Day

Summary: Danny has the closest thing to a normal breakfast he can have with nine strangers, but as luck would have it, he soon realizes he probably just ate something he shouldn’t have.

Word count: 3,717

The rest of the day, which wasn’t very long, was spent setting up camp in the ruins. It was a bit awkward for Danny since he didn’t have a tent or sleeping bag and pretty much just helped out a bit despite Hyrule insisting him to just sit with his injury. They were currently outside while dinner was cooking. Danny was seated on a log with his backpack right beside him, close enough to snatch if anyone tried anything. That night, Twilight was the one to cook something for the group, which based on what information Danny had, was usually Wild’s job.

Speaking of Wild, he had yet to say a word. Not that there was an issue with it. Besides, Danny found out the reason why when he tried asking him through sign language about what he usually likes to eat. He understood none of it, so now he was getting another set of lessons for sign language by Hyrule and Wild.

Key word now being ‘was’.

“Here you go.” Twilight said, handing him a bowl of soup. Danny accepted it with a smile, but wasn’t going to just eat it straight away.

“Thank you.” Danny said. In truth, he was pretty grateful, but with how suspicious he was of everyone, it felt like a lie. It smelled like cheese, fish, and pumpkin. An odd combination, but none of it looked or smelled anything like the stuff he taught himself to watch out for. As he glanced at Twilight hand the rest out, he risked it and lifted the spoon to his mouth to eat. Not because he was hungry, but more so to avoid suspicion.

It was surprisingly good. However, the familiar uneasiness caused by stress in Danny’s stomach urged him to eat slowly if he was going to eat anything at all that night, so that’s just what he did. By the time he was done eating, the others were too, and when he looked up, he immediately caught Warriors and Hyrule eyeing him. He glanced between them awkwardly, when really it put him on edge.

They seemed to realize how weird their staring must’ve been because their eyes widened a bit.”Oh, sorry. I was just unsure if you’d actually eat anything since you’ve seemed stressed and since arriving here.” Hyrule explained. Danny wasn’t entirely sure if he’d believe that, but he’d definitely play along.

“Yeah, it’s weird to be having a normal day and then quite literally dropped into another world. I’d be more surprised if I didn’t freak out a little.” He said half jokingly.

“So what’s your world like?” Wind asked. Danny turned his head to the right and looked at Wind sitting next to Twilight. Behind them, the clearing surrounding a pit prevented nearby trees from growing and concealing the night sky with their leaves and branches. Looking up, the young halfa was left breathless by the view. He had no idea how he hadn’t noticed it until now, but when he did, it was like everything else was forgotten.

The stars littered the sky like scattered glitter, and the moon looked to be in its crescent phase, glowing extra bright, but not bright enough to keep Danny’s attention. Neither were the stars the main characters of his attention, no. It was the galaxy. It was at an angle, mostly up and down, and looked cloudy and dusty, and yet so beautiful with its colors of white, purples, and blues. Out of all the camping trips he’s taken with his family, he couldn’t once recall a sight like this in person. It was beautiful, beyond beautiful, actually! Seeing pictures like this in textbooks were one thing, but he never imagined how much better it felt in person.

Now more than ever, he wanted to fly off planet and explore up close. Danny’s heart raced in his chest despite him still not breathing, until he felt someone nudge him and he nearly jumped out of his seat. He glanced over to see Legend had been the one to startle him out of his trance-like state.

“You okay?” He asked.

Danny recomposed himself.”Yeah, I’m alright.” He said. He glanced over at Wind, who looked a little concerned along with Twilight.”I’ll tell you one thing; In my world, you can hardly see the stars like this without driving a long distance away from the town because of the amount of lights we have on to light up the roads, and even then, I’ve never seen such a clear view of the night sky like this!” He said. He looked back up at the sky and leaned back a little bit.”If you guys get to see this every night, I’m a little jealous.” Danny said, hardly processing his own words as he was pulled back into the alluring wonders of the cosmos.

He was going to ask about different monsters, but he decided that would wait a bit. He knew something was said, but he was so focused on the unbelievable sight that it sounded muffled. His mind was elsewhere, most of it still shocked into silence and a small part of it going through everything he’s learned about outer space all at once.

~~~~~(Short Time Skip)~~~~~

After what felt like a short while and also eternity at the same time, Danny couldn’t ignore his continuous yawning any longer. He brought himself back down to the ground and turned to grab his backpack. A sharp pain flared from the cut as he turned his body and he briefly bit his lip to prevent himself from letting any sound out. As he moved to put it against the log so he could use it as a pillow, Danny looked around to see the others asleep. Most of them, at least. Time was still awake, sitting next to the fire.

He looked over at Danny.”Oh, you’re going to sleep? I was going to check on you in a few minutes if you hadn’t moved.” Time said. Danny felt a little bit embarrassed about how he’d let himself get lost in space for so long and his face felt a little hotter, and it wasn’t because of the fire.

“Yeah, it’s... it’s almost unreal.” He said, averting his gaze towards the ground. He got an idea and unzipped his backpack, reached inside, and pulled out his phone. He may not have service, but that wasn’t needed for the camera. Danny lightly pressed the on button, unlocked his phone, and pulled up the camera app, turning his phone towards the sky.

“Is that a sheika slate?” Time asked. Danny snapped a few pictures of the sky before turning his phone off and glancing over at him.

“A what? This is a phone.” Danny replied. Did they have something similar to a phone here?

Time seemed to understand and gave him a small nod.“Wild has something very similar. A bit more decorated, though.” He said.

“That’s pretty cool.” Danny said, yawning after he spoke. He briefly covered his mouth out of habit. He put his phone away in his bag and zipped it back up. He adjusted himself to lay down parallel to the log, using the backpack as a pillow, and cringing from the pain from his cut. The moment he got into a comfortable position and rested his head against the contents inside, Danny realized how tired he was. And something else. He sat back up, pausing at the flaring up pain from his cut, and began to stand up.

“Is everything okay?” Time asked.”If you heard something, I need to know.” He said. Hopefully the phone wasn’t the same thing they had that was similar.

“Uh-, no, I just... I just need to go take something off. I’m not supposed to sleep in it.” Danny said. Much to his relief, Time didn’t pry and simply nodded.

“You might want to also remove the strap on the armor, by the way. Makes sleep more comfortable.” He said. Danny nodded, grabbing his bag and walking into the ruins to do just that.

When Danny returned, he’d thrown on his jacket and zipped it up to make himself feel more comfortable, along with the Swiss Army knife Sam had lended to him. He was planning on returning it to her when he arrived at her house, but now he was suddenly really thankful for it as he’d tucked it away in his pocket. He stayed quiet as he placed the bag back down and got back into his previous position. He looked up at the sky one last time, no feeling a little better with the cosmos in his sights, before letting his eyes close.

~~~~~(In The Morning)~~~~~

The ground underneath Danny felt a little rough and a little prickly, and the partially solid backpack he was using as a pillow didn’t really help his quality of sleep. The rough texture of the backpack was far from perfect or ideal, and one of his first thoughts was that there was probably a mark on the side of his face. The contents inside offered some solidarity to keep his head off the ground at a slight angle. Now you might be wondering; How much sleep did Danny get? The answer is none.

He didn’t even have to try not to, but he did anyways. Whenever he heard something that startled him into sitting up, Time, Warriors, or Twilight would ask if he was alright. He’d nod, say he was a light sleeper, and pretend to go back to sleep. It wasn’t hard since being half dead meant he didn’t need to breathe as much, so he could mimic the slow, deep breathing of the living fast asleep without falling asleep himself. They had shifts, apparently, to keep watch from monsters.

Danny heard them waking each other up and bidding goodnight, then the camp would drift back into a quietness only interrupted by crickets, owls, the wind blowing, and the occasional monster howl in the distance. At some point, he’d been offered a blanket, but he politely refused and said that the jacket he was wearing was meant for colder weather than this, and was honestly happy when they didn’t press further than asking if he was sure. Danny took a while to notice the crickets quieting down and the owls waiting longer and longer between calls.

When he did, he mentally groaned and complained about how he hadn’t gotten any sleep, as if it wasn’t his intention. He heard pretty much everything, including when Twilight and Wild started to set up breakfast. Danny decided he’d had enough and would pretend to be an early riser. He yawned and started to sit up, but a sudden, sharp pain made him stop and inhale sharply through his teeth, almost like a hiss.

Right, the cut. How had he forgotten when it had bugged him all night?

The injury felt very sore and tingly as he waited for the initial soreness to subside. Once it died down enough, Danny moved again and lifted his arms next to him to sit up. The pain flared up again, but he held his breath and managed to push himself up with his eyes shut tight. He slowly released his breath and opened his eyes once he was sitting up.

“Good morning.” Twilight said. Danny looked over at him.”Did you sleep well?” He asked.

“Actually, I don’t think I slept at all. Thanks for asking, though.” Danny replied. He really wanted to be sarcastic, but he shouldn’t. It sounded like a genuine question, and even if it wasn’t, he could get in trouble for being rude. He didn’t fail to notice the brief look of worry on both heroes’ faces as he put a hand on the log to try to use as a backup support.

“Need help?” Twilight asked.

“No, I got it. Thank you, though.” Danny replied. He grabbed onto the one of the shoulder straps of his backpack and stood up. Thanks to his fast healing, the cut had likely healed some overnight, but it still hurt a lot. He’d take a look at it. He shifted his gaze to Twilight when he noticed him get up from his seat, but soon looked away when he started to wake up the others. While he did that, Danny threw him and Wild a brief “I’ll be right back, gotta check on my cut” before going back into the ruins.

He didn’t hear any argument, only a “Be careful” from Twilight.

The ruins were pretty dark compared to outside, but Danny’s eyes were already adjusting by the time he found his way back to the room he went into the day before. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his phone for the flashlight, something he could’ve done earlier, and shut the door behind him. He placed the backpack against the door and unzipped it. The little blob from yesterday let out something akin to a chirp.

Curious. Worry. Safe?

Danny looked inside his bag.”Yeah, but don’t come out yet. I’m going to get changed again.” He said. He reached in and grabbed the piece of leather armor, and the first aid kit. He placed the first aid kit on the ground and put the armor on top of it, then began undressing his upper body.

Worry. Hurting?

Danny didn’t look at the blob and put most of his focus on the task at hand.“Yeah, the cut still hurts.” He said. It was surprisingly comforting to have them there with him. After the struggle to put the binder back on, Danny paused to look at his cut. Placing the phone on top of his backpack, propped up against the door, he kneeled down and moved the armor off the first aid kit. He opened it and pulled out a roll of bandages. Then he began removing the bandages stained in red.

He was a little relieved to see that the stitches haven’t swelled much, something Frostbite warned him about. Danny also didn’t see any change in his usual skin tone around the site. The redness had died down from when it was fresh yesterday, so it didn’t look infected. The young halfa grabbed the roll of bandages and started putting on a fresh set. Once that was done, Danny grabbed the old set of bandages and put them in a previously empty spare pocket inside his backpack.

He then put the roll away, and the first aid kit back in his bag. He took the jacket and Fenton taser and put them both in the bag, but not before folding his jacket. Danny took a deep breath, letting his arms drop into his lap and still kneeling in front of his bag. Being surrounded strangers wasn’t fun at all, no matter how friendly they seemed, but they were his best bet at getting home. The blob sent another message, making more high pitched noises that always sounded like static, squeaks, chirps, or something one would hear from a computer experiencing errors that sounded like an expensive fix.

Worry. Comfort?

Danny only thought about it for a few seconds before closing his eyes and nodding. The blob didn’t see it, though, so he spoke.”Yeah, I’d appreciate it if you can be quick about it since we have to head back pretty soon. Just give me a moment.” He said. An agreeing squeak was his response as he started to get dressed.

Once he was done, complete with all the armor, he looked into the bag.”You can come out now.” He said. The ghost blob flew out of his bag and immediately put their plan into action.

They floated around Danny’s shoulder, went past him a little, then turned around and pressed their small body against the side of his face. Danny wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. That didn’t mean it didn’t help, though. The blob’s ghostly “body” was pleasantly cool, the kind of cool that would make you want to surround yourself with it, especially during a hot summer day. They were also a little squishy. It reminded him of a stress ball Sam once handed him in class.

It wasn’t tough, or too easily manipulated that Danny felt a slight uneasiness from it possibly moving so fluidly that he couldn’t prevent it from falling out of his hand. In fact, after he thanked her for it, Sam offered to look into getting him one the next time he came over. That was supposed to be today. Even though it wasn’t some big event, the realization only added to his list of things to be upset about. The ghost blob closed their eyes and started vibrating their core, except it wasn’t a direct message.

The emotion was something bittersweet, but much more sweet than bitter. It was soothing. There was a ghost word for this, but the best English word was probably “purring”.

Danny glanced at the blob. Their soft green glow would usually be depicted by most others as eerie and unsettling, but now he saw them as a light of safety. Like a nightlight. Danny closed his eyes and tilted his head ever so slightly towards them. Not enough to make them move, but just enough to convey the message. He took a slow, deep breath, then another.

After a short while, Danny opened his eyes and smiled a little.”Thank you.” He said. The ghost blob chirped.

Curious. Hopeful. Comfort? Good?

“Yeah, I feel much better now. We should head back.” Danny replied. The ghost blob gave him one last chirp before retreating into his bag. They snuggled into the jacket he’d neatly placed as Danny reached towards an energy drink kept in place by a strap and net inside the bag. He was slowly getting into the habit of drinking them when he got so little sleep between school and ghost fighting, and he hadn’t gotten any sleep. The hiss and pop of the opening can echoed rather loudly in the small room.

Instead of just taking a couple sips and risking it spilling in his backpack, Danny made the half-thought-out, half-impulsive decision to down the whole thing. The flavor wasn’t the best thing for early morning, but it wasn’t that bad. Once it was all gone, he placed it back inside before zipping the bag back up and grabbed his phone. He carried the backpack by one of the straps that go around his shoulders and used the flashlight from his phone as he opened the door and began leaving the ruins. In the few minutes he’d been gone, the sun had risen more, and a few birds were starting to wake up.

When he returned to the camp, he put his phone back in his bag and approached the group. It could be his imagination, but they seemed a little relieved to see him. Wind and Hyrule especially perked up. Wild was the first to walk up to him, holding out a bowl of food.”Oh, thank you.” Danny said, accepting the food. Looking around, everyone else was awake and eating. Sky looked grumpy, though. He probably wasn’t a morning person. Danny took his seat from last night and started eating.

After everyone was done eating, Sky spoke up.“Alright,” Danny paused his practice conversation with Wild, worried that it was about him, “here’s the plan for today.” Sky said. Danny decided he needed to be involved in this. He probably already was, anyways.“An hour after breakfast, Wild and I will go up to Skyloft for supplies, and obviously one last visit to Sun. Then we’ll come back down to start Danny’s training.” Sky said.

Being defenseless wasn’t an image the young halfa wanted to keep for long, so he liked this idea. His only worry was his injury. It was healing nicely, but still hurt even when he wasn’t moving and was far from good enough for sparring. He was going to bring this up, but Hyrule beat him to it.

“We need to wait for his injury to heal, though.” He said.

“Why not give him a healing potion? Or a fairy, or use any magic?” Warriors asked.

That caught Danny’s attention. He lifted his hand a little.”Hold on, magic? Probably not a good idea.” He said. Everyone paused and turned towards him. Wild’s face fell a little.

“Why not? Is your body not able to handle magic very well?” Hyrule asked. Even though Danny wasn’t entirely sure, he didn’t want to risk it, so he nodded and started delivering an explanation to back it up.

“Back in my world, magic is extremely scarce. Most people don’t even believe it actually exists, and I used to be one of those people.” He said. Hyrule and Wild looked at him really worried. They then glanced at each other, then back at him. Danny didn’t like that had one bit.

“What happens if you eat it?” Hyrule asked. The pieces fell into place so quickly, the Flash couldn’t put together a puzzle faster. Danny’s face fell a little.

“I honestly don’t know. There was magic in the food, wasn’t there?” He asked. Hyrule nodded. The camp was silent for a bit. Well, except for the birds chirping and other animals waking up. It’d be bad if it went quiet while they were in a forest. Danny probably wasn’t as worried as them, though.

“I got a little unwell a while back when there was a lot of magic in a meal, but all I got was a stomachache that lasted a couple hours.” Twilight spoke up. Not sure if that was meant to help or not.

“Hopefully, that’s all I’ll get.” Danny said. He quickly dropped the subject. He’s gone to school and fought sick before, even though it was a bad idea and experience. He could surely handle a stomachache, if it affected him at all. He suddenly remembered last night’s meal.”Wait, but what about dinner last night? Did that have any magic in it? If it did, that would actually be a relief because that would mean no side effects.” Danny asked.

“No, last night’s meal didn’t have any magic in it.” Twilight replied.

Okay, there was still a possibility of him getting sick. That was fine. He’d handle it.“Guess I’ll just wait and see what happens. So if we can’t train, could I at least get a bit of information on these things I’m going to learn to fight?” Danny asked.

“Sounds good to me!” Wind said.

(Notes: Y’all, I’m so impatient to get to the parts I really, really want to write and I’m trying to be patient about it because there are other parts I’d also like to write! I’m being impatiently-patient! I wanted to title this “Dawn Of The First Day”, but decided against it because it’s the second day. Yes, even though it hasn’t been a full 24 hours. But I enjoyed writing the bit about Danny realizing how there’s pretty much zero light pollution, which means clear view of the night sky, and he kinda just forgets about everything else! I can’t help but imagine the Links watching him get lost in space (metaphorically) and either making bets about when he’ll snap out of it or fall asleep, or just Twilight giving him a piggyback ride late at night while he stares up at the sky.)

(And incase you’re wondering who’d win the bet, no one would. If left alone, Danny would most likely stay up all night staring at the sky, which none of them bet on. He’d either pretend to be completely fine the next day because it was far from his first all-nighter, or he’d be carried against his will and get a good nap in. The bit where the ghost blob comforted him was also something I had fun writing! Also, I’m trying to do some research on binder safety because I’m using the trans Danny headcanon for this (all of the Links pretty much don’t care-- girl, boy, if you can fight, then you can fight), but if I ever make a mistake with it in future fics, please do let me know.)

[links-in-time]

Sword and Dagger

This fic is for @mmelete and anyone else who wants to see some reconciliation and comfort between Legend and Warriors. They are two of my favourite LU boys and I wish they got along more in people's fics.

------------------------~~~------------------------

"LEGEND!" Warriors voice rang out across the camp.

A smile curled the corner of the Vet's mouth as he continued adding wood to the fire. He managed to surpress his laughter. This was going to be hilarious.

The stomping of boots grew louder as Wars stormed across the clearing towards where Legend was kneeling by the fire. Something solid collided with Legend's shoulder, hard and fast. He dropped the last branch he had been holding and clutched at his arm. Looking down he saw the offending projectile. A squat brown glass jar filled with clear gel.

"Ouch!" Legend grunted, rubbing furiously at his new bruise. "What the fuck?!"

"What the fuck?" Wars echoed, turning the question back on Legend.

Around the clearing the rest of the boys couldn't help but stop what they were doing and turn their attention to this latest argument. Time let out a sigh and rubbed at his brow before turning back to his journal. Wild continued chopping vegetables for dinner. He hated it when the others were fighting, it made his anxiety spike and he would rather be literally anywhere else in the world when his brothers were at each others throats.

Four, Hyrule and Sky pretended to carry on with their own activities. Still keeping an eye on the argument about to break out by the fire. Wind was mercifully down by the stream, and hopefully out of earshot of the screaming match that had already begun. While Twilight was out on patrol.

"You arse! You put glue in my hair gel!" Wars bellowed, pointing accusingly down at Legend. His other fist balled and shaking at his side.

Time couldn't help but flick his eye up from his journal to Warriors. He also couldn't help the minute smile which crept upon his lips. Wars' hair, which was usually kept almost immaculate, was a mess. The left side was stuck down so flat it almost followed the shape of his skull. While the right side was stuck up in the air at odd angles. He looked like he'd been caught in a sudden gust of wind. Except there was no breeze. Only a livid scowl and the pointing finger which refused to leave its mark.

"You mean your hair CAN look even more stupid than normal?" Legend replied nonchalantly. His eyes remaining on the fire.

"You little shit! Now my comb is clogged up with glue and hair and I'm gonna have to get a new one, thank you very much! Not to mention what a pain in the arse this is going to be to clean out. What the hell man? What did I do to you?!"

Warriors continued to berate, oblivious to anyone except the object of his fury.

It wasn't really about his hair. Well, it was almost certainly about his hair. But Wars wasn't as vain as people liked to assume he was. Just because he was considered more handsome than most, didn't mean he was constantly preening himself. Sure he liked to look neat and presentable, but that was mostly from a life spent in the army. A soldier could be seriously disciplined for failing to dress correctly or for having scruffy hair. Every soldier was a representative of Hyrule itself. So heaven forbid that Wars always took care in making sure he was the best goddess damned image of Hyrule he could muster.

His real bug-bare was why Legend seemed to have singled him out for his pranks and jibes. Legend teased Wars for his good looks constantly. Not that Wars thought any of the others was less good looking than himself. Perhaps the Vet hadn't seen himself in a mirror for a while. If it wasn't his looks or his scarf, it was his military service, or his rank, or his loyalty to the crown. Legend could turn any trait of Warriors' into a snide remark aimed just right to get under the Captain's skin. Wars sometimes wondered if it was actually some special talent of Legend's. Like a little dagger specifically designed to be able to pick someone apart all the while laughing at them.

"Oh no, you'll have to spend some of that soldiers wage you keep bragging about!" Legend scoffed, batting the pot of gel and glue away from himself.

"What?" Wars shook his head in surprise. This was not the reaction he thought he was going to get. "Since when have I bragged about my wages?"

Wars finally looked around the camp at the rest of the heroes. Sky unfortunately managed to catch his eye and Wars latched onto his gaze.

"Sky, I don't brag about money, do I?" He asked furvently, still radiating rage and confusion.

"Um, well," Sky stammered, shrinking under Wars' intense gaze. "Not as such. But you're kind of the only one of us with an actual job."

Wars processed that for a second. He'd never considered soldiering to be a job, but it did come with a regular pay packet. So far as he could tell the only one of them who got payed for work was the Smithy. Four was an accomplished blacksmith with his own business. He had to make a decent amount of money for the work he produced. So that couldn't be the only reason Legend had singled Wars out. This couldn't be about money.

"Four has a job!" Wars pointed out.

"Hey, leave me out of this," Four stated firmly. "This is between you and Lege, figure it out without pointing fingers at the rest of us."

Four kept his eyes on the sword he was polishing, but Sky noticed they took on a verdent green hew as he spoke. He wanted to ask about it, but knew now was definitely not the time to be starting other conversations.

"Yeah Captain, why don't you pick on someone your own size!" Legend barked, drawing Warriors attention again.

"Pick on..? You're not that short!" Wars spat back.

"Oh so I am short, but not that short!" Legend retorted.

"Come on boys, please knock it off," Time groaned.

He tipped his head back against the tree behind him and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Your screaming match is giving me a headache. Plus I can't imagine anything living within a mile radius of this camp is thanking you either." Time said with a sigh.

"But he..." Wars began, but Time put up a hand to stop him talking.

"Legend, apologise for your prank," Time insisted, fixing Legend with his one eyed stare.

Legend flicked his gaze away to the ground, avoiding the Old Man's piercing eye.

"M'sorry," he grumbled under his breath.

"Right," Time nodded.

"Really, that's an acceptable apology to you?!" Wars scoffed.

"Wars, I'll buy you a new comb and gel in the next town we find. And in the morning I'll help you wash the glue out of your hair. Alright?"

Time turned his gaze onto Wars, who knew from the look on his face that it was going to be alright whether he liked it or not.

"Fine!" Wars turned on the spot and walked decisively towards his bed roll.

He picked it up and dragged it a few metres further away from the fire and set it down with a resounding thump. Wars quickly shucked his armour and his mail and tunic, before shoving himself under his blankets and all but throwing his head onto his pillow.

The rest of the Chain didn't hear a single peep out of their Captain for the rest of the night. Sulking or sleeping, no one had the courage to go and find out. At one point Hyrule asked Legend if he felt bad about how far his prank had gone.

"He deserves being taken down a peg every now and then." Was his response.

But even as he said the words, Legend felt no real emotion behind them. No truth. He'd taken a strange disliking to the Captain not long after they'd all met. He was rigid and calculating. Absurd in the attention he gave to his looks and infuriating in the way that he never deviated from a plan. Legend felt no spark of curiosity or adventure when he took a peek at Wars' aura. His magic felt strong like the rest of the Links, but it also felt tame and rigid. As though it had been pushed into a box which was too small.

Of all the Links in his company, Wars was the one he just couldn't figure out. And the one who reminded him the most of some of the worst days of his life. So he lashed out. Made jokes at his expense, played pranks he knew would get a rise out of the Captain, because it was a laugh. And what else was he supposed to do with someone who was as stiff as a board?

***

Time didn't get a chance to clean Warriors hair. Hyrule woke everyone up in the middle of his watch to the news that a portal had appeared not far from their camp. He'd felt the unique magical signature the moment it appeared and quickly ran to see what had happened. The dark swirl of black and purple bridged the space between two trees. A void deadening all light and sound around it.

Hyrule had hurried back to camp and quickly roused everyone. Unusually, Wars was the last man to finish packing his gear. And he was at the back of the line as they broke camp and followed Hyrule towards the new portal. While no one could see him, Wars attempted to flatten down the worst parts of his hair, but with little to no success. The glue had done a fine job and he'd worked it through so thoroughly with his comb, that it perfectly coated his hair. Forcing it into its current state. He let out a defeated sigh and trudged through the forest without taking much notice of his surroundings.

The shady woodland was soon replaced by the now familiar unsettling feeling of being pulled through a dark place. Wars had the uncontrollable sensation of nausia and dizziness which was concurrent with a portal jump. He was one of the few who suffered the least from time jumps, but he counted himself lucky. Wind and Four often verged on passing out after walking through a portal. While Hyrule could be left feeling dizzy and disoriented for up to an hour. Not helpful if there was danger waiting on the other side.

As the blackness faded away and the sickening sensations passed, Wars felt the bitter chill of icy weather biting at his skin. He looked up and had to blink twice before he believed what he was seeing.

Everything was white.

Everything except the red, blue and streak of pink hair in the near distance, which could only be Legend.

Wars grumbled, wrapping his arms around himself as he shoved his chin into his scarf. This was not going to be a pleasant day.

"Cap?" Legend howled over the rushing of the wind pelting his ears.

His hair flew every which way and he held onto his cap to prevent it being tugged off his head. His tunic whipped around his bare knees and he winced against the sting of the snow as it hit his exposed legs. Surely the Captain would tease him for not wearing trousers at some point.

The Captain! Legend suddenly thought with a jolt. Where in Din's name was everyone else?

"Captain!" He called again.

Wars wasn't very far away, but still Legend's voice sounded like a whisper rather than a holler. Squinting against the driving snow and leaning into the wind Wars trudged towards the colourful blob in front of him.

"I can hear you Legend. Where's everyone else?" He called in reply.

"No clue. They were right with us when we went through the portal."

Wars heard something about Legend not having a clue. (Nothing new there) And the portal.

"Great," Wars sighed.

This wasn't the first time the Chain had been separated by portal jumps before. Usually they were only split up by a short distance. They never settled on a plausible theory as to why this happened, though Wars had some pretty convincing ideas of his own. However, upon a quick scan of the surrounding empty countryside, Wars couldn't discern any other notable figures in the landscape. Legend and he supposed he himself, were the only dots of colour in an otherwise colourless world.

The snow storm showed no signs of blowing over and even tall trees had been mostly hidden by the onslaught of snow and ice. When Wars reached Legend, his next move would be to look for shelter. Hopefully the sour veteran would be cooperative enough to help rather than hinder Warriors efforts to keep them both alive.

"Looks like we got split up again. And we don't have Wild or the Sailor with us to contact anyone. We need to find shelter or we'll both catch our deaths in this cold." Wars said through chattering teeth.

Legend shuddered at the thought of just trying to walk through the thick snow around them. He could already feel the chill in his core as he pulled his hat down over his ears, and shoved his hands under his armpits to keep his fingers from freezing.

"Any suggestions?" He uttered, struggling to breath with lungs full of ice.

"Let's walk downhill," Wars decided, trying to think logically while his brain was telling him to just stop and get warm. "The cold will be less intense if we reach a lower altitude, and there's more likely to be shelter the lower we go. If we stay up here on the hill tops we'll freeze to death."

"Downhill it is then," Legend nodded.

Wars raised an eyebrow at how easily Legend had followed his suggestion. But he didn't dare question it unless Legend suddenly decided to have an argument about it.

"You want me to go ahead or behind?" He asked.

"You can cut through the deep snow easier than I can, you go first."

"Right."

"Plus, if you fall in a hole I'll know not to step there!" Legend snorted.

"Right," Wars said flatly.

So they began their slow slog down the hill. The wind was mercifully behind them, but still bitterly cold. Wars took a leaf out of Legend's book and pulled his old hat out of his bag. He tugged it tight down over his ears and tucked the end into his scarf so it wouldn't flap about. Wars could feel his steel mail freezing but there wasn't anything he could do about that now. His undershirt would keep it from touching his skin, but it wouldn't do anything to keep him warm. He just preyed they would find some kind of shelter and soon.

They walked for what felt like hours before the ground began to level out. The trees became a more frequent sight and though the storm was still raging, even a meagre tree cover was better than nothing.

"We could stop and make a fire here?" Wars suggested, looking about at the tall pines around them.

"Our stuff will just get wet if we stop here. We should keep looking for shelter. A cave or a cabin or something," Legend replied with a shake of his head. Though it could have just been from the cold.

"How d'you know there'll be one?"

"I don't, but... I'd rather keep looking than stop here and freeze. At least if we're moving we're keeping some sort of body heat." Legend explained.

"Me maybe, aren't you freezing?" Wars scoffed, eyeing Legend's bare legs which looked raw and red.

"Yeah I am, thanks for reminding me!"

"Sorry, I was just thinking you might want to stop?" Wars remarked.

"Because I'm small and fragile?" Legend snorted.

"What? NO?" Wars balked. "Because you're wearing less clothes and you're more likely to die more quickly of exposure than I am."

"It's not a competition Captain!" Legend hissed over his shoulder as he continued to walk in front of Wars. "Besides, I'm far more adaptive than you anyway. Who's to say who would win that competition?!"

"It's not a competition to see who dies first either Lege!" Wars sighed, hurrying to stay with the turbulent Vet.

Their argument died as they continued to walk through the snow covered forest. Icicles hung ominously from tree branches over head. Wind whipped through the trees, shaking loose drifts of snow. The only sounds were the howling of the wind, and their laboured breathing as the two boys marched through the snow drifts.

"Hut!" Legend exclaimed.

Wars head shot up at the sound and looked ahead. A squat wooden structure sat among the trees just a few yards away from them. Legend immediately took off towards it, with Wars only a few steps behind him. The veteran hero threw his shoulder into the door as he turned the handle, but there was less resistance than he had anticipated and the door swung open freely.

It was an extremely modest dwelling and it clearly hadn't been used for some time. There was a single cot in one corner. A fireplace set into the back wall and boarded up windows on the opposing sides.

"I'll be damned, maybe the gods do love us after all," Legend sighed, as he spotted a stack of logs in the corner by the fire.

Warriors quickly shut the door behind them and hefted his pack onto the floor beside the bed. His first instinct was to leave some kind of sign for the others telling them where they were. If this storm didn't break soon, the two of them might find themselves stuck for a while. If the others came looking, Warriors wanted them to find him and Legend as soon as possible.

He pulled out a pouch of berries Wild had picked for him and stared at it, turning the object over in his mind. The colour would stand out against the stark surroundings, but he doubted the juice would stick to the door of the hut on its own. Another thought wormed it's way into his mind and he groaned at how good his idea was.

Wars searched for his old pot of hair gel and found it in his pocket of useless objects he kept meaning to throw away. He opened the lid and was relieved to find it hadn't completely hardened. Wars crushed a few of the berries into the jar and mashed the mixture together with his fingers. When the gel-glue had turned a vivid pink colour, he quickly left the hut.

"Hey! Where are you...?"

Wars heard Legend say as he pulled the door open and quickly used his fingers to write on the outside of the wooden door. It was rough and untidy. But his makeshift paint did the job. The bright pink of the berries having the desired affect. Wars spelled out the quickest and easiest thing he could think of before letting too much cold back into the hut. After he was finished he quickly washed his hands off with some snow, closed the door and threw the jar of paint back into his pack.

"What was that about?" Legend asked incredulously.

Wars sighed contently as he saw the fire blooming into life behind Legend. But he swallowed before answering his question.

"I was leaving a sign for the others in case they come looking for us. Hopefully someone will be able to see it even if they don't notice the hut right away."

"Huh, that's actually pretty smart," Legend nodded, turning to throw some more kindling onto his tender flames.

"Did you just call me smart?" Wars jibed.

"I called you pretty smart, you know, the same way seagulls are pretty smart," Legend scoffed, avoiding Warriors gaze.

"Right."

Wars shook his head and turned back to his pack. He pulled out his bed roll and set it on the floor beside the fire. Legend waisted no time settling himself onto it and rubbing at his legs to stimulate some warmth. Wars pulled out his blanket and pillow and some spare shirts to replace the one he was wearing. It would be wet with both sweat and snowmelt and would quickly make him cold if he didn't change it soon. Speaking of.

"Hey, um, Legend," Wars said tentatively. Hating himself for the next words about to come out of his mouth. "Can you help me for a minute?"

"Help you with what?" Legend groaned.

"I can't take my armour or my mail off, they're too cold to touch. Can you put some gloves on and help me?" He asked, trying to convey as much sincerity in his voice and expression as he could muster.

Legend let out the longest sigh Wars had ever heard. But still, the Vet pushed himself to his feet and crossed the cabin to where Wars stood.

"Well?" He asked impatiently.

Wars quickly found an old pair of gloves in his pack (not fingerless ones) and handed them to Legend. Although Wars had to point Legend in the right direction a couple of times, Legend quickly helped Wars take off his pauldron and laid it on the floor near the fire for it to warm up. His tunic came off with ease but his mail was more difficult. Legend managed to buch it up around Warriors shoulders, then got him to bed over and slid the whole shirt off onto the floor over his head.

"Well that's just insanely stupid!" Legend scoffed, as he picked up the heavy lump of clinking metal.

"It's saved my life more times than I can count," Wars retorted, trying to shake out his hair before rembering he couldn't.

Legend layed the mail shirt out on the other side of the fire and Wars wondered at the care which the Vet showed to something he clearly disapproved of.

"Why don't you just try not to get hit. Then you wouldn't have to wear something so heavy?" He proffered.

"Is that why you stopped wearing trousers?" Wars remarked in return.

"Touche."

Wars quickly undressed and pulled two clean shirts over his shivering body. He wanted to put his tunic back on as another layer, but that was pretty wet as well. The garment and his scarf, joined his armour by the fire and he settled for pulling a blanket around his shoulders instead.

Legend scooted along the bed roll slightly to let Wars sit down in front of the fire. The warmth hit him in a similar way to the snow. His face and hands tingled as his skin came back to life.

"Ahhh," Wars couldn't help the sigh which escaped him. "Nice work getting the fire going."

Legend looked at him sideways but decided not to turn the simple statement into an argument.

"Thanks, and you're welcome by the way, for helping you out."

"Thanks for that, I'm usually alright doing it by myself. But, I've known people who touched frozen mail before and ended up with the pattern burned into their skin by the cold." Wars explained, his expression turning pensive as his memories trickled into his mind.

"Huh, yeah that would suck." Legend nodded.

Legend finally decided to take off his hat and tunic and let them dry out alongside Warriors clothes. He found his own blanket and draped it over his knees. After that the pair fell into an uncomfortable silence as their bodies began to warm. They could hear the storm raging on outside their little bubble of calm, but the hut was fairly draft free. Plus there were enough logs to keep them going for at least a few days if necessary.

Wars didn't want to sit in silence. He'd hated the periods of his life when he hadn't been able to talk. Since being with the rest of the Chain he felt like he could speak his mind or his emotions freely, and without reprisal. For the first time in a long time he had almost felt understood, among other people like himself. But then there was Legend. The impenetrable wall of stoicism and spite. It wasn't that they just didn't get on, they were totally different people. And it was infuriatingly difficult for the two of them to see eye to eye. Two heroes of Hyrule, both forged though danger and courage to defend their kingdoms. A sword and a dagger, both deadly weapons, weilded in very different ways.

To Wars' great surprise Legend was the first to break their silence.

"I am sorry about your hair," Legend uttered. If not for their complete quiet, Wars didn't think he would have even noticed the teen had spoken.

"Then why'd you do it?" Wars asked, pulling the blanket tighter around himself.

"I dunno, thought it would be funny I guess. And it was kinda funny. But after that you were just cross and I knew everyone else would be cross at me for doing it. So, I dunno." Legend shrugged, turning his face away so Wars couldn't see his own confusion.

"Have I done something to make you mad at me for some reason? If I have it definitely wasn't intentional Legend," Wars questioned, searching Legend's posture for some kind of response.

"No, that's not..." Legend tried to push some words out his mouth. But his brain and his lips weren't complying with one another.

Why was he even trying to explain himself to the Captain of all people? He wouldn't understand even if Legend could organise his thoughts. He just knew he wouldn't. So why try at all?

"Forget I even said anything alright. You clearly don't know how to accept an apology."

Just like that Wars watched Legend's walls close in and his mask slip back into place. He radiated the energy of a feral animal, terrified something would come near him. Wars hovered beside him, torn between trying to comfort his friend, and dropping the issue altogether. The hero inside him couldn't bare to do the latter, so he grit his teeth and pushed on.

"Lege, do you hate me?" He asked softly, ready to take the answer he was anticipating.

That made Legend lift his head and face Warriors. A frown creased his brow.

"No, of course I don't hate you?" He said. "Why would you think I hate you?"

"I don't know, the relentless teasing. Hiding my stuff, the glue. You're constantly on my case. It's like you're trying to rile me up so much that I don't want to be with the group any more." Wars rambled on until he had said more than he meant to.

"You don't want to be with the group anymore?" Legend's frown deepend.

"No, I mean yes." Wars sighed, this was coming out all wrong. "Of course I want to be with the group. You boys mean the world to me. But I just get the feeling I don't mean anything to you. Or if I do it's not a good feeling. And that hurts Legend. Everything you do, I know it's little things and if they weren't so often I could brush them aside and maybe even laugh at them. But what you're doing to me, it really hurts. And I don't know why else you'd hurt me if you didn't hate me."

Wars closed his eyes and curled in on himself, his fingers dug into the blanket, knuckles turning while. He only realised he was crying when he felt a drop slip down onto his lip.

Legend sat stock still. He was so stunned he had to give himself a mental slap across the face and grab hold of the situation in front of him. The Captain, Warriors, their chief planner and strategist, his brother, thought he hated him.

"I don't, hate you," he said slowly.

Goddesses he was terrible with emotions. Turns out he was terrible at reading certain people too. Legend thought Warriors was all stoicism and army and, 'look at me aren't I so smart and better than every one!' How could he have got it so wrong.

He knew how.

Months of being hunted by royal soldiers haunted his nightmares. Days and nights spent on the run, accused of a crime he hadn't committed. A crime he was trying to stop for Din's sake! Shining steel and the sound of clinking mail made his skin crawl. Just helping Warriors take his off had sent him to the edge of reliving those memories. But he'd done it because his brother needed his help. Now he was hearing Wars doubted him so completely.

Legend was a difficult person to love. He knew that. He was all hard edges and scepticism. How Ravio not only put up with him, but genuinely loved him, he'd never know. The crazy merchant had latched onto him and never let him go. Ravio had opened his heart to the possibility that he could actually love and be loved in return.

"I didn't take to being the hero as easily as everyone thought I did," Wars said softly.

Legend raised an eyebrow, not at the words, but at the fact that Wars had spoken first. He was almost ready with a speach and everything. But Wars sounded like he was about to get something off his chest, and Legend was happy to hear him out.

"The war had just started. Cia's monsters were ravaging the lands. The Hero was on everyone's lips. And then the Hero was me. I was the one she was after. The spirit of the Hero lived inside me and she wanted it for herself. The lengths she went through to try and claim me, I shudder now to even remember it. I knew how to be a soldier. A Hero was something different. It's alright for a soldier to fail. That just means the enemy was stronger and better prepared than you. You can learn something from failing and do better in the next fight.

But as a Hero, you're not allowed to fail. You win or you lose and if you lose you'd better prepare for people to turn against you. When you're an image people cling to in times of dispare, you do everything you can to help and to live up to their expectations. I tried so hard to be everything people needed me to be. I hardly ever let myself think about what I wanted. Because it didn't matter. I had a job to do and that was all that mattered."

Wars paused and sighed, his chin resting heavy on his arms as they crossed over his knees. Though his voice sounded steady, tears slowly streaked down his face.

"I guess I still have it in my head that everyone needs me to be perfect. If I'm not, then I'm letting someone down. It doesn't matter how good a swordsman I am, or how many enemies I defeat. If I put a foot wrong, if I fail somehow, I fail Hyrule."

"I have a thing about soldiers," Legend sighed. If they were sharing he probably aught to do his bit. "On one of my adventures a guy called Agahnim accused me of kidnapping Zelda. He had some kind of hold over the soldiers and he made them come after me constantly. They put up wanted posters and ordinary Hylians saw me as the enemy who kidnapped their princess. I was on the run for months. Soldiers tried to grab me everywhere I went. I don't know if they had orders to kill me but they certainly weren't gentle in their efforts.

When you first showed up on this journey, for a brief moment I thought you were the enemy. The thing Hylia had sent us to fight. A knight gone rogue. I don't think I ever really got over that feeling. The idea that, at some point you were going to turn on me. So I kept you at a distance, kept pushing you away."

There was a brief moment of silence before Wars chuckled. He snorted a laugh as Legend shot him an incredulous glare.

"Sorry, I'm not laughing at you. That sounds like a nightmare. But it's kind of ironic," Wars tilted his head as the thoughts swirled.

"Ironic?" Legend parroted, utterly bemused.

"I had my fair share of betrayals during the war." Wars replied, his tone souring. "During one battle, half my troops turned against me. They called me a traitor, claimed the war was my fault. I had to-to fight men and women I had fought alongside for years. They gave me no choice. I still hear their screams.

So it's ironic you thought I was going to turn out to be a traitor. When I've spent most of this journey trying to convince myself that all of you won't turn against me at some point. None of you ever gave me reason to think you would, but the memories still haunt me. So when you push and you tease and you torment me, it feels like..."

"Like your fears are founded in something?" Legend filled in, the bottom falling out of his heart as he spoke.

"Yeah, and when the others laugh and join in with the joke. Sometimes it's hard to make myself believe they don't mean it." Wars paused and turned his body so he was facing Legend more directly. "I'm sorry I make you feel nervous Lege. If I'd known I would have done something. Changed my clothes, I would have lost the scarf, the armour. If it stopped you thinking I would turn on you, I'd have done anything."

"You're sorry?!" Legend barked a laugh. He could feel warmth behind his eyes. But he hoped he would be able to keep speaking before he started crying. "Cap, Wars, I never thought about how what I was doing would make you feel. I - I suppose I did a bit and watching someone like you, a soldier, make a fool of themselves made me feel good I guess. I suppose that makes me a terrible bully." Keep going, deep breath, almost there. "And I know I can't take any of it back. Farore knows I wish I could. But since I can't I want to say how sorry I am. I'm sorry I singled you out. I'm sorry I made you feel betrayed, and I'm sorry I made you think I didn't love you."

"You love me?" Wars frowned as he sniffed.

"Of course I do you big dumb idiot!" Legend smiled, as tears began to overflow down his cheeks. Damn it.

"Haha, that's really sweet of you!" Wars laughed, but the sarcasm was clearly received.

"Sorry, I'm not good at emotions," Legend shrugged. "But I do mean it. I love you, and all the boys, and I will try my very best not to let you feel hurt by my awkward nature again."

"You really do mean it, don't you?" Wars said slowly, searching Legend's eyes for any sign this was another joke of his. He just hadn't reached the punch line yet.

But there was nothing but warmth and sincerity to be found. Wars hard hardly ever seen the Vet cry. But that wasn't important, he was crying too after all. Legend had opened up to him. Explained himself at last. All the pieces slotted into place and at last Wars could see Legend for who he really was. A frightened kid lashing out in order to protect himself. A kid who had seen more horrors and been through more hardships than any of their brothers. Perhaps more than all of them combined. And yet he had enough love left inside him for all of them. Even for Warriors himself.

"I love you too Legend."

Wars dropped his knees and spread his arms wide. Legend sniffed back a sob and crawled his way into Warriors embrace. Wars wrapped Legend up in his blanket, Legend's sightly damp hair tickling his neck. But he ignored it. They were both hurting and it meant the world to both of them to be able to comfort each other. Legend clamped his arms around Wars' waist, his face buried in Wars' shoulder. The warmth of the blanket and Warriors body heat spread through his frigid limbs and kindled a fire in his heart.

"Let's never fight again," Legend mumbled after a while. He felt more than heard Wars laugh against him.

"Yeah, like that's ever going to happen!"

"Alright, let's never fight over anything stupid again," Legend corrected, wiggling out of Warriors death grip slightly.

"Right, nothing stupid," Wars nodded.

The motion drew Legend's attention to Warriors hair. He really tried not to smile. He really really tried, but it was just so stupid how it was all stuck up on one side, even after being stuffed into Warriors hat.

"Would you like me to try and fix your hair?" Legend offered, already afraid Wars was going to shut him down.

"How? It's going to take days of washing to get this out?" Wars sighed, deflating a little.

"If I brush it carefully, I can stop it sticking up like that. Then we can wash it properly when we're out of, wherever we are!" Legend insisted more fervently. "Ravio did something similar to me once after I accidentally burned his favourite scarf. He helped me get the worst out of it."

"But I ruined my comb," Wars groaned, remembering the matted clump which had been thrown on the camp fire.

"We can use mine," Legend offered. "We already need to buy a new one for you, what's one more?"

Legend and Wars spent the rest of the evening huddled together by the fire. Though the storm outside showed no signs of letting up, and they hoped the rest of the Chain had found their own shelter somewhere, their little cabin remained cosy. Legend was true to his word and dutifully brushed the worst of the glue out of Wars' hair.

After he was finished, Warriors hair felt softer and was no longer stuck to the side of his head or sticking up in spikes. As Warriors ran a hand through his hair, he could still feel clumps of glue against his fingers. But at least it was workable. The simple act of kindness and repentance Legend had shown filled his heart. Maybe things would be different between them from now on.

"What did you write by the way?" Legend asked, as he sat back down by the fire.

"Write?" Wars frowned.

"On the door of the cabin," Legend reminded him. "You left a sign for the others to find. What did you write? Some kind of code?"

"Ah, no. Not exactly," Wars uttered, cheeks flushing a little pink.

"A symbol?"

"No," Wars sighed, a symbol would have been a good idea. The triforce would have been easily recognised.

"Then what?" Legend prompted, giving Wars a nudge with his elbow.

"I was in a hurry so I wrote the first thing that came into my head," Wars admitted.

"Right, and that was?" Legend urged.

"I um, I wrote Link."

"Link."

"Yep."

... "It's a good thing you're pretty."

---

Once again this became so much longer and went so much deeper than I intended it to go. I should probably go to therapy instead of venting all my stuff into these characters. But therapy is expensive and posting fanfics on Tumbler is free! So you guys get to enjoy my therapy with me, yay!

(Cries internally)

If you want to read more Legend and Warriors then my fic Hobby Boys is much shorter and has way less angst!

[linkeduniverse-writing]

General LU Headcanons part 1

Heya! So I'm starting this blog with some general headcanons about the boys, I think I'll divide it in three parts so it's not too long. First up are Four, Hyrule, and Legend! Hope you enjoy :D

Part 2 Part 3

Four

It takes him so long to emerge from sleep

Like he'll be in a haze for like 20 minutes, not able to form any coherent thoughts

Which is kind of a surprise because he's one of the early risers, and is super reactive once fully awake

He tends to talk to himself a lot, mostly when he does something or thinks through a problem

It's mostly to exteriorize all the noise inside his head tho

The others aren't as weirded out by it than he feared, and he's thankful for it

Whenever they're in a market or just in a town, he always finds himself drawn to craftsmanship

Like if they need to interrogate people about monsters and stuff, he'll go ask artisans mostly

He feels more comfortable around them

It feels like home

Also he likes to compare his work to other blacksmith's

He feels like he has a lot to learn still, and he's very curious about how the craft has evolved with time

He doesn't know first aid and the scent of blood makes him sick, but if his teammates need tending he'll do his best

He tries to see their wounds as metal work needing repairs

It helps him keep his cool

But he'd rather leave it to someone else

Hyrule

Another early riser, but he hates it

He loves sleeping in and wishes his body would let him sometimes

But oh well, when it's time to wake up it's time to wake up

He's a very light sleeper too, like the wind blowing in the leaves above would wake him up

He hates it

Botany nerd

Loves keeping track of the new plants he finds along the way

He always asks the Link from the Hyrule they're in if he knows about it, and will pick them up if he can't get an answer, to study them later hopefully

He rarely can, but when they have a moment he'll either find a plant book (and a Link who can read it for him) or straight up ask someone if they know about the plant

He's always so polite and genuinely curious, people can't help but answer

He accidentally set Sky's stuff on fire once when showing off his fire magic to Wind

Sky was too impressed to truly be mad at him tho

(Also Hyrule replaced all of the stuff that couldn't be repaired, don't ask him how)

He doesn't mind blood and grime and gore, but can't handle anything with maggots in it

He'll stitch up anything, he'll put bones back in place if necessary, but one bug? In a wound? Don't count on him

He can keep his calm even before the grossest injuries, which is why he's often fixing up the others after a fight

He rarely uses his healing magic tho, he knows he'll tire too easily, and he can't help them if he can barely stay awake

So potions potions potions

He's a gentle caregiver but you better do as he says when you're hurt

Legend

A heavy sleeper, and he dreams a lot, but he never remember them

Probably for the best if you ask him

He usually wakes late, but never truly rested unfortunately

That never stoped him from being immediately efficient and fully awake tho

He knows he has a reputation of being sharp and closed off, but he's a really good listener

He's the kind of person curse the world with you when you vent until you're in the right headspace to find a solution

He kind of encourages the others in their dumbest ideas just to see what'll happen

(not the too dangerous ones, of course)

But he's curious, and after all the adventures he's been through, he believes that if he survived all of this, surely Wild will survive trying to cook a bomb flower

He did, but Twilight almost died of stress

He's the one who helps Warrior with refilling their inventory when they're low on supplies

He's a great negotiator and can get them twice the supplies for the same price

He's sometimes even charming enough to get them all a free meal

It's his favorite skill

He doesn't mind blood but will not look at broken limbs

Not his own, not other's

He tries to keep his cool around the others to not make them panic, but he really hates broken bones

If one of them is hurt, he'll try to distract them and make sure they have water and enough heat

He'll also keep them in place if they move around too much for Hyrule or Warrior to work on them

He's not gentle, but he's still reassuring somehow

[luimagines]

Hello Pinky I hope you missed me and my Lynel Farm!

I got an idea which would be hilarious! Reader is a Link! But not any Link no they are Wild and the Link from TotK! And they are a MENACE! Why?

Well, Reader can use glitches like Bullet-Time Bounce or clipping or Wacko-Boingo. They also wear the Tunic of Wild. But they came after TotK to the game and they can duplicate everything! And everything is maxed out of capacity they can't carry a single drop more. Their Purah Pad is about to explode! But then just imagine their meeting.

Legend: „Seriously does anyone know where the fuck we are?!“

Wind: „It looks like a forest.“

Reader used BTB and yeeted themself above the group with their shield on their feet just to shield surf the hill down with speed.

Sky: „What was that?“

„I want that too!!“ with that Wild shield surfed the hill down too.

Twilight: „I will go and get him...“

But the whole group follows as Reader is obviously someone who knows where to go. But as they see Wild and Reader standing there face to face. They are just stunned. They look the same! But Reader is missing an arm and has a mechanical arm instead. But these two seem to get along. This is how they learned that Reader is Wild practically but instead of doing all the Beast, gathering memories and the shrines to pull the sword. They instantly went after Ganon. They fought in their underwear and some Weapons they found on their way and sticks against the Calamity. They don't even know what a Master Sword is! They did the shrines after the Calamity.

But even if they are so bubbly and well wild. They don't talk about their journey and to Twilight. They felt betrayed by him. They needed him as they woke up in a shrine without any orientation or knowledge where they are and what happened. They just needed Wolfie by their side and to help them with their upcoming panic attack. They also don't trust the Chain immediately. They could be Yiga or puppets, sorry for Spoilers, like the Zelda which they chased after in the present. And if someone asks about their journey they only tell the stories of The Hero of Wild not the Hero of Ruins, who they are now. They turn cold and say with an icy tone „It's not your business!“

But Four should never see their weapons or he gets a heart attack. They got so many cursed weapons. But Reader is also freaking strong! Lifting a claymore is hard enough but a claymore fused with another claymore, that's heavy! They fused two Biggoron Swords together or two Dusk Claymores. They also hear the poes in the Depths and that's how they got the weapons. Thanks to the talking statues.

Reader also talks more to their horse and this one isn't small! Even Ganondorf's stallion is smaller than that. It's a giant white stallion and it stomps on everything that comes across their way! With the beautiful name "Thunder" because this thing has loud stomps! But since it's so tall it also takes great maintenance and that's Reader's therapy. When they take care of their giant, they don't feel the phantom pain of losing their arm or hear the whispers of the dead. Just the snorts of their horse and the brush. They also sleep with their horse but mostly on fields or caves as forests can have Evermeans and they want to sleep one time without an ambush from everything that wants their death!

Wild and Wild obviously are all around their giant horse. Four is all about their Lynel Sword collection, swords fused with lynel horns. Twilight tries to mend the bridge while they both are carrying about their horses. Legend and Hyrule ask about the sages and their abilities. Warriors and Time tries to get them comfortable enough so they share their journey. Sky teaches them about the Master Sword but they turn off as soon as he begins with Hylia. They are an atheist they don't believe in her.

The rings from Rauru as they lost their arm are built into the artificial arm as the sages gave them an oath of loyalty.

I feel like I understood about 50% of this because I know so little about Totk.

I know about the arm of course and the the cursed weapons! XD

Four would absolutely lose his mind about them. He freaked out when Wild broke his sword on a rock- just wait until that Reader attached a rock to their sword.

I don't know if they would even know who Wolfie is. If he was never there for them since BotW, then would they even know that Wolfie was someone who would have had to there anyway?

So it would be more like-

Wild: Wolfie was a great help to me when I needed him most the first time around. Reader: ...Who? Wild: The wolf... the wolf that followed me- us- you (?) around? Reader:.... Nope. I don't have a clue who you're talking about.

And another note, I do think that they wouldn't trust the chain off the bat though. You're right. They could be yiga in disguise. A new threat to the the land or to Zelda. There's just something off about them that Reader wouldn't have been able to tell what it was.

Especially since they might not even have all their memories anyway. If they did the shrines after Ganon, then who's to say they would have bothered with doing them all anyway? They coudl have just checked out a few, got bored and left it at that.

They might not have any of their memories and are perfectly fine that way.

[dekuscrubbb]

So could we get a breakdown of what all the counselors do? Also, are the bois over certain cabins? Like Warriors cabin 3, Legend cabin 2, etc. Etc. Or is more like they're over their station and the campers just move between stations?

okay, fair warning... this might get a little long!

wild's sheet is the only one... done...... and actually needs to be...... redone. but he's in charge of archery, most of the meals, and survivalist/wildlife survival classes (which are required for all the campers to take)

both he and hyrule are the ones leading the survivalist classes, although they almost always have one of the other counselors with them, due to the fact that 20+ kids are tricky to keep on task for two people in the middle of the forest.

he and malon get along well, and she comes over sometimes to help feed the campers, but is ultimately pretty busy with the ranch. whenever there's a field trip to lon lon, they make lunch for the campers and catch up.

occasionally he and twilight will team up for horse riding lessons when there's a group larger than 5 being taught at one time.

i don't talk about warriors enough!! and i should. he's usually a cabin counselor, which means he's in charge of one of the cabins housing the sleepaway kids!

he's a bit of a denmother and spends a lot of his time making sure his campers are doing well.

see how legend has a red and white shirt and some of the campers have that same color scheme but flipped? well, that's to symbolize what cabin they're in. its to help with rounding up kids.

but its also helpful for the numerous cabin wars when legend and warriors put on. they're team building exercises and for fun, but due to legend and warriors' prevalent rivalry, they can get a bit out of hand. much to sky's chagrin.

warriors is also in charge of any plays and etc being put on at camp. as well as any large team events in tandem with legend + seldomly sky.

sky does a bit of everything around camp, but is mostly known to help out in arts and crafts as well as being the lead pest control guy. soooo, known for cleanup and being an extra pair of patient hands.

he's also a cabin head, but only for the kids who switch to sleepaway halfway through camp. has to be shaken awake violently most of the time, as his campers are fully aware of the 4 daily naps the guy takes.

the kids adore him because he'll get rid of the skulltulas and scare off any wolfos around camp, but he also gifts them little wood carvings if they stick around to watch him work.

sky is also known to share little secrets about his coworkers to the campers, just to make sure his chaotic image is upkept someway. he enjoys being both a voice of reason and keeping the remaining counselors on their toes.

they're highly coveted and are a bit too much of a source of contention between campers sometimes, as the trading games created with them cause.... fights.

legend is the second cabin counselor, most of the time at least. sometimes twilight beats him in the counselor beat-down at the beginning week of training, but its not usual.

although legend is a bit snappy and can seem cold towards the campers, they know better. they're used to the calmer, more caring side of legend since they have to sleep in the same cabin.

and don't tell anybody, but the hot cocoa legend sneaks out from the kitchen is the best balm for nightmares.

legend hates lake duty, but is the strongest swimmer among the counselors apart from wind. but since wind is about 4'9" on a good day, legend is essentially forced into lifeguard duty.

a few other counselors might hang out on the coast or do some games with the campers, but legend and wind are usually the two keeping supervision when it comes to the lake.

usually the guy to go into town with twilight, or at least the first to volunteer, as a majority of the counselors come along anyways.

although hyrule, four, wild, and wind are considered "junior counselors," wind is the youngest and definitely treated as such. even if he's probably the more level-headed and mature one at times.

its easy for him to connect with the campers, since they're closer than age, but he finds it infuriating that they treat him more like a peer than somebody in charge.

he teaches swim lessons in the shallower parts of the lake and holds water games + fights. teaching the campers how to properly act within water and the certain things to keep in mind when doing so.

he will also take the campers on river rides in the canoes through the forest, with at least two other counselors along.

when wind was also just a camper, he played pirates in the faux-pirate ship. he met tetra here and they stayed friends, even if she remained a camper rather than apply for counselor training.

twilight is the second guy you can find getting rid of pests, as well as the one guy you should go to for bear hugs and a cuddle if you need it.

he's in charge of trail rides, horse riding lessons, and the one to plan out any excursions into the small town just outside the forest housing the camp. bit of a worrywort and more than a little overbearing according to the campers.

although, also according to the campers, he's been acting a little weird and more withdrawn than usual. plus, there's a rumor that he's been staying out after dark, who knows!

he's a good cabin head, but he doesn't know if he likes being responsible for that many kids at a time, especially since he doesn't feel like he's up to the task. tends to fail the "counselor beat-down" on purpose, unless legend gets too annoying /lh.

hyrule is at the nurse's station most of the time, but in the afternoons he goes to help out legend or wild for whatever activities they're in charge of at the time. anxious, but good at his job, and endlessly annoyed at how many times the same kid can sprain their wrist.

luckily, having trained-ish magic and being somewhat knowledgeable when it comes to actual first-aid, hyrule is able to keep the campers relatively in good health. although, they have had to send a few home from injuries he couldn't deal with.

enjoys wandering around camp and the forest, and he's good enough with any sword that he's not too worried about the local wildlife.

hyrule and wild are rather close, and tend to wander off whenever they aren't keeping track of campers. they've gotten into some.... trouble on their own.

in charge of arts and crafts and gets a little too into the creation process. he's used to helping his grandfather with blacksmithing back home and holds the campers to the same standards at times.

but you can...... only make so much with pipecleaners and pinecones. for the most part he's pretty calm and enjoys his job, but if he has to take one more boxcutter away from an eleven year old terrorizing the arts and crafts tent, he's going to lose it.

he and wild have a theory about time's funding for the camp and they use up a lot of their free time discussing it. its unknown whether or not they truly believe this, but the mounting amount of evidence they keep finding is driving the two crazy. especially since time doesn't exactly confirm or deny anything.

will occasionally help out sky with pest control + whatever, but isn't a big fan.

and that's..... i think it! or as much as im able to write right now. got more flowers to plant, you know how it is! spring is very busy. nod.

asks are still open and whatever questions you may have can be made there! :)

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Imprisoning war lore? Yes please.

I want to know more about the Sheikah. Also I forgot does Link have a horse and uhh do the Gerudo use sand seals? Also anything you want to rant about I am asking about :)

/nf

*SQUEALING* EE AH HI YES OK IMPRISONING WAR LORE OK

Let's see, the Sheikah... they're a fairly large group of people, with two notable populations: Castle Town and Kakariko Village. They're obviously known for being loyal to the royal family - an oath of fealty to the blood of the goddess is part of their coming of age ceremony. As such, the coming of age ceremony also includes a test of strength - all Sheikah are trained in combat and magic, though not all become warriors. To prove they are ready to handle the world themselves, they must endure several trials, including a duel. There is no age of adulthood in Sheikah culture - whenever you pass the trial is whenever you are considered an adult. There's a shrine near the village where a monk helps all the children prepare for the trials.

Although the Sheikah are mostly well known for their abilities to fight, there is a small group of Sheikah seeking to aid Hyrule in other ways, working on technology more advanced than what Hyrule has currently experienced. This technology gets a huge acceleration during the war, as tech often does, and Link himself trials the guardian set of weapons during the war.

There's also a class of Sheikah known as the monks, who may have had any occupation in life but are considered an expert in it and spiritually adept. They're very highly revered among their people.

Sheikah are very proud of their people and their heritage. They have a lot of strict traditions, such as how they wear their hair and face paint that they use. The bun is a traditional Sheikah hairstyle, and not wearing one's hair that way is considered cutting oneself off from their people (Impa wears her hair down for a few years after leading a coup against the king to symbolize how she tore her people in two through this act). With this rich history and tradition, and pride in it, the Sheikah usually keep to themselves. When Link's father married a Hylian woman, it made a bit of a stir. Though Link was still welcomed, there was a definite sense of Otherness that he could sense growing up, and he did everything in his power to try and make the Sheikah proud.

Speaking of Link, he does indeed have a horse! Her name is Peanut. :) She was his war horse. Although his depressive slump and near imprisonment in the castle the first few years of his marriage prevented him from seeing her, she still was very happy when they reunited a few years after the war ended. <3

The Gerudo actually use horses! It's part of their trade with Hyrule. However, after the war, the horses were slaughtered and relations between the two nations are fractured. Hemisi herself finds the sand seals and comes up with the idea to tame them. Years later, she and Link get to enjoy the wonders of sand seal racing. :) (Link drags Zelda along. She screams a lot.)

[twistedstoryteller]

Linked Universe Headcanons I have

I’ve been in the fandom for awhile now, and I got a couple headcanons formed cause of it(might add more to it if I remember/think of more to add here)

————————————————————————

Four and Wind are related being each other’s ancestor and descendant respectively. Four is very fond of both Wind and Aryll. He’s slightly protective of them too.

Wind and Tetra’s great great granddaughter is Spirit Tracks Zelda while Aryll’s great great grandson is Spirit or Spirit Tracks Link.

Fable and Legend are twins(therefore Legend part of family tree), though they were separated at birth due to a very unfair law regarding about natural born princes that formed in the downfall timeline(Do not worry Legend and Fable obviously got rid of that law when Fable became queen). The Hylia “bastards” became a thing in that timeline.

Ravio and Hilda are twins as well. It’s just Ravio status as prince of Lorule never actually came up(heck none of the citizens of Lorule realize that Ravio is well “Ravio”, not just because he wore that bunny mask. Mostly due to Ravio as prince behave cold and detached. He cares for Lorule just as much, but well. He is very cunning for a reason)

Four has a dad. It’s just said dad was very busy with his knight duties and wasn’t very home often thus making things very awkward between both father and son, especially when Four was part of the knights of Hyrule for sometime(FSA Manga beginning) but later switch back to being a blacksmith. Four and his dad are getting along slightly better since FSA. It still can be awkward at times.

Sky very fond of his great great great whatever how many greats granddaughters aka the other Zeldas(after he actually got through the process of being embarrassed he and Sun basically created the entire royal bloodline). He’s a hugger too, and he also hugs Legend upon finding out the other is his great great great whatever how many greats grandson.

Twilight is actually Legend’s and Fable’s uncle in another life. Dusk is also Legend’s and Fable’s mother in another life. Maybe?(I’m on the fence on this one but I really like it :D)

Hyrule’s mom from another life is Tatl. It was pretty interesting when he ran into her in Time’s era. Especially considering Hyrule is technically half fairy 🧚🏼‍♂️(based on my headcanon on him)

Let’s just say in the time where all the timelines merge back into one aka Warriors’s era. Legend, Hyrule, Twilight, and Wind own spirits that dwell will get the most interesting experience of having two other lifetime of memories shoved into their heads(the timeline they were heroes in being the most prominent or more present in their psyche. At least the ones they personally chose to identify themselves as, aka it’s filtered to be the one they remember immediately, they have to actually try to think to remember the other two timelines. Both Twilight and Legend were pretty awkward around each other cause of it). Time got lucky cause it was only two timelines worth of memories, the one he lived and the fallen(got the most awkward experience of remembering himself dying in the fallen timeline), Four though. Oh boy, all three set of memories from three different timelines cause well. Remember the palace of the four sword and he was sealed in the sword somehow. Yeah all three sets of memories of three different timelines shoved into his head does not sit pretty well in his head for him. Pretty sure he fainted at least four seconds later after that(and does not have the same type of filter as the others contributed to that as his own lifetime was before the split by Time), at least he was with Sky(Sky got lucky |:[).

Warriors, Time/Mask, and Wind both knew each other during the war. They bonded pretty well to the point they actually saw each other’s as brothers(heck Wind actually tackled hug Warriors when seeing him again).

Time may not exactly behave like it but he still has a mischievous gremlin streak. He just hides it way better than he did when he was younger. Hyrule is Legend’s descendant. Therefore technically related to the royal family but very distantly.

Twilight knows the Lon Lon family song, even if he doesn’t exactly remember where it came from since he was very little when he had wandered into the forest of Ordon. Rusl and Uli were his adoptive parents in a way cause of it(bless them, they were very kind and sweet for him. Colin and his younger sister adore Twilight just as much)

all the Links are all canonically very attractive and beautiful. Unfortunately Four and Legend have this feminine look and feel to them that sometimes get them mistaken for being fair maidens more than once. Legend gets it worse off as at least the way Four presents himself helps(when split as the colors, it’s Red and Vio that get mistaken as girls out of the four). Of course that doesn’t mean Four and Legend don’t take advantage of it when seeing/spotting a good opportunity to use the ability of being mistaken for being female(doesn’t help both have scary talent in being able to mimic a female voice very well).

Four has a dogish cat named “Wolfie”. Who unlike normal cats, actually recognized Four and protected him from other cats(Wolfie happened to love the Minish just as much as Four does). Wolfie the only cat Four actually adores, cause in Four’s words “Wolfie is an exception, he isn’t like any regular cat!” just like Legend would feel about Pyoko since Pyoko’s a cucco, and cuccos are something all the chain(except for Sky) would fear and rather keep away from at all times.(also yes Four is well aware the fact his cat named “Wolfie” and there’s a wolf named “Wolfie” too)

Four, Time, and Legend have one of the most beautiful singing voices out of all the chain. All of them have great singing voices however Four, Time, and Legend have the most beautiful in that order(of course Legend doesn’t show that talent of singing off either as slightly open as the others due to well, everything he been through, especially what happened with Marin, she was the last person he had sung his whole heart for, Ravio has actually helped Legend slowly open up with his singing. Time doesn’t sing as much either however Warriors and Wind remember how beautiful and soothing sounding Mask’s own singing was, and Time is slowly getting more willing to sing the more time he spent with the chain. Four actually was the most comfortable and okay singing in front of others regarding out of the three. Also, they technically have Disney Princess quality singing, heck maybe even better.)

Time/Mask used to love singing often back in the Kokiri Forest. Even though he had his status as a no fairy boy back than, not even Mido can deny Link had the most beautiful singing voice out of the Kokiri. Every creature in the forest loved hearing Link’s singing. Time/Mask later stopped because of his journey especially after Navi left and his time in Termina(the only person he was even willing to sing for at the time was Malon, Epona was an already guaranteed). He slowly did get comfortable singing privately for Warriors, Artemis, and Wind. Later it would extend to the rest of the chain especially Twilight and Wild.

Out of all the colors, Green actually got to keep the soft soothing singing voice Four is practically known for. Of course they(Green, Red, Blue, and Vio) all technically have Four’s beautiful singing voice, it’s just Green has the most beautiful singing when it comes to gentle and soft songs(like Zelda’s Lullaby) The other colors got the other parts of Four’s singing voice aka they sing the other parts of Four’s singing very well(I will answer which parts of it another time). Random side note but Shadow really good at singing too to the point he and Four can do a duet with each other(He and Vio already did one together once, but only that one time back when Vio had pretended to be working for the villains)

Zeffa is very important to Four and not just because I see Zeffa as Four’s loftwing. Zeffa and Four are partners the same way as Sky and Crimson are. Not only that but Zeffa actually loves to listen to Four’s singing voice, especially when Zeffa flying Four around. Also Zeffa is very fond of Green, Red, Blue, and Vio(the four are in a way Four after all)

Wild may not be able to easily recoil the memories as his own. He still feels some remnant of attachment and love for Mipha. Especially since Mipha had always seen Wild, as himself not just “the hero”. Mipha’s spirit stayed with Wild even if she had a chance to pass on. She didn’t.

Warriors is Spirit or Spirit Track Link. He and Artemis(whose Spirit Track Zelda) experienced the timeline merging when they were around they were the ages of 16-17, and they woke up one morning not only seeing that new Hyrule freaking changed! That not only that the country now called Hyrule again, both Warriors and Artemis literally woke up with two other set of memories they clearly know were not there the night before. It was not the most enjoyable experience for either of them(Will not always use this type of headcanon but I do really liked it and might use it in some works of mine)

Legend experience at the palace of the four sword was traumatizing to say the very least. Especially when he later realized he killed Four in that time as he didn’t recognize Four at first(just a sense of dread he can’t explain). He only realized upon seeing Four split for the first time his mind clicked that yeah. He killed an older Four there. Legend couldn’t exactly look Four properly in the eye for awhile

Remember that Ocarina of Time manga where Time had befriended a certain boss dragon monster but had to kill his that dragon when he got older aka Volvagia. Well technically in the child timeline that dragon, never became evil cause of Ganon right? So technically that means that dragon alive but never was under ganondorf’s influence. That just means the dragon living off peacefully somewhere with a happy dragon family(possibly still visit Time somehow). Hmmm, should we still call that dragon “Volvagia” or should we call the fellow something else. Hmmm “Volga” maybe?(totally not tempted to make this dragon the same one from Hyrule Warriors for some random yet potentially angst inducing reason 😶💧, ha ha ha where would you ever get that idea 😅 he he he). Side note the little dragon has heard Time sing before, both in the adult and child timeline.

Four became a sword spirit after LU(No I will not elaborate how exactly. Let’s just say “Palace of the Four Sword”). That random and potentially angst idea aside, Four can still see the Minish as he is interacted with them long enough to still be able to see them possibly all the way till he is very old and grey.

The Chain do reunite once more after their adventure together. How? That part is up for debate. Very up to debate.

Also I really like the headcanon that the Hero of Men(one that Four looked up to a lot just as much as he did with the hero of skies) was actually a minish. A forest minish to be exact

————————————————————————

And that’s all I can think of for now. Still might add more later, who knows. 😅

[chainofhyrule]

Under the Starry Night Sky

“Is there truly anything more relaxing than watching the world go up in flames? Name one thing, I’ll bet you can’t.”

“Being the one to strike the flint.”

Eyes of similar shades of blue and green all turned to look at you as the sound of your blade striking the flint in your hand echoed across the small clearing they’d found for a camp. There’d been an eerie glow to follow after as you set the campfire ablaze, and you met nine mismatched gazes with an innocently deranged glint in your eye. You only smiled, and put the flint back into your bag with a little chuckle.

“Have neither of you heathens heard of tea? Or maybe fishing?” Legend made an interesting gesture of holding a cup, looking at Wild incredulously. “Reading a book, even?”

Wild shared with you a doubtful look, and he cackled, speaking through his laughter.

“We’ll take an energising elixir and shock arrows over tea and a fishing line any day, thanks.”

You caught several members of the group rolling their eyes, some laughing, as you took the cooking pot out of Wild’s Sheikah Slate.

“As far as reading goes, Vet,” you mused, adding fuel to the fire (literally, and metaphorically,) “I’m not even sure Wild would use a book as anything more than a fire starter.”

Said hero only shrugged as a few members of the group, mostly Warriors, as he was currently reading a book, started poking fun. Wild only raised his hands in defence as he began walking over to you to get his slate back to start swiping through inventory.

“I’m just saying, they’re nice and flammable! Who cares about reading when you’re cold and in the wild?”

Time set down a piece of his armour that he’d been cleaning, and sat forward with his elbow on his knee. The whole image screamed ‘tired dad energy.’

“What of your warming potions, or layers?”

“Or those ruby earrings Y/n wears, or the diadem?” Hyrule asked, sitting back against the tree he’d collapsed against earlier. You only shrugged, peeking over at Wild as he handed you a few things to start prepping for dinner.

“I didn’t have them yet,” the hero said simply, looking over at you almost fondly, watching your hands as they worked. “It was early in my journey, anyways. Didn’t even know potions were a thing yet.”

Some of the group nodded in understanding. It was rare for them to hear about a time in Wild’s journey from before he met you, or Wolfie. They thought little of it, though. You, however, were close enough beside him that you noticed a twinge of remembrance in his dulled blue eyes. From the slight twitch in his expression—too small for any to have seen or acknowledged but you—it was something bad.

On your journey together, Wild had told you about everything he’d remember as he recalled it. When it was something good, there’d be a slight smile on his face when he came back from blankly staring into space. When it wasn’t, his eyes would cast themselves down in the dirt. Either way, you were always there for him. Just as you intended to be now.

“I’m lucky I found Y/n when I did, though,” Wild said softly, and his expression turned to that of joy. Everyone looked back up at him to see it. “I doubt I’d even be here if it wasn’t for them.”

Shoving the hero’s shoulder lightly, you couldn't help but groan in annoyance and roll your eyes.

“Yeah, lucky I didn’t kill you before I saw that Hinox!”

Wild barked out a laugh, surprising the others. Some of them laughed along, while others smiled happily. It was rare to see the champion so at ease, and until they’d picked you up from Wild’s Hyrule, they honestly thought such an expression on him was impossible. Whatever the two of you had gone through, at least Wild hadn’t had to go through it alone.

You were just as wild, crazy, and recklessly daring as he was. It was frightening. You were good for him though. That much they knew.

Twilight was your biggest advocate, though.

After a full dinner of prime meat and rice bowls (courtesy of yours and Wild’s superior hunting skills and Warriors’ rupees two towns back,) the group was quick to fall asleep. You offered to take first watch, as you were always more of a night person. Wild agreed to take second, and Twilight third.

So far in the night, the only sounds to keep you company were that of the crickets, the breeze, the crackling fire, and the boys’ snoring. It almost reminded you of your travels before meeting the group, where you’d often been alone under these kinds of stars. Until you heard Warriors grunt in his sleep, and remembered you were practically babysitting nine irresponsible heroes at the moment. Some liked to say that Time was responsible and grown, but you knew the truth. He was just as much a gremlin as Wind and Wild, if you gave him the chance. Which you often did.

It was almost an hour to Wild’s shift when you started to feel your eyes growing heavy, and had to shake your head a couple times to keep yourself awake and (somewhat) alert. However, just after shaking your head for something like the twentieth time, you felt hands grip your shoulders from behind. On a normal occasion you would have jumped or swung, but you recognised the way their fingers pressed into your muscles.

“Trouble staying awake, Y/n?”

Nodding wordlessly, you made room for your partner on the log he’d dragged over to the fire earlier, welcoming his company.

“You’re not supposed to be up for another half hour,” you mumbled, giving in to his arm wrapping around you to pull you in. You soon felt his cloak being wrapped over you, too, and a kiss was pressed to your temple.

“I guess I didn’t want to leave you all alone out here,” he said in a faux suave voice, wriggling his brows as he leaned in to kiss your cheek. You bit your lip to keep yourself from laughing out loud.

“That was disgusting,” you teased, and Wild quieted his laughter into your neck. “Did you learn that one from Warriors?”

“Am I that transparent?”

You raised a brow and looked up at him, smiling.

“You want me to be honest?”

Dropping his jaw in feigned offence, he slapped a hand over his chest and looked at you in fake hurt.

“My own partner in crime and life,” he said dramatically, “has hurt me so that I cannot bear to take to heart her offence!”

“Oh my goddess, Link,” you managed between hushed laughter, slapping your own hands over your mouth to lower the risk of waking any of the others.

“If I cannot maintain my unpredictability, then whoever shall I be?”

“Link, for the love of the goddess—”

“Oh, how you have hurt me so, my beloved,” he continued, threatening to crack with every word. “Have I not been faithful to you, my love?” He dramatically stood before you and kneeled to take one of your hands, and you fought the laughter until there were tears in your eyes.

“Link.”

The hero finally broke down, and his face flopped forward into your lap to muffle the sound of his laughter. You fell forward onto his back, trying so hard not to wake the others.

It was nice to feel so carefree, but if yours and his combined laughter woke anyone—goddess forbid Warriors or Time—you’d never hear the end of it. However, you couldn't bring yourself to care much about the risk. If Wild was happy sharing new moments like this with you, then you were ecstatic.

(Tap here to return to Masterlist)

[needfantasticstories]

SKIP'S LU MASTER POST

List of Collab projects and my fics. All credit for creating LU goes to Jojo, who is amazing! And THANKS A MILLION to @hotcheetohatredwastaken for reading my stuff and offering advice and encouragement. She deserves all the love and kudos for her fics!

(My AO3 name is SkipBreaker)

WRITING PROMPTS

Collection: Write It In Your Style (or draw!)

Prompt: create something about the chain helping a family rebuild their house after a monster attack.

ALL products welcome if tagged appropriately. Let’s see all your styles and beautiful brains at play! Tag all your friends. There is no deadline. Tag works as “LU rebuild the house prompt” and please use TWs.

LU Rebuild the House Prompt | Archive of Our Own

MY FICS

Short Fluff/Crack

Sneaking Apples and Other Tales A collection of one-shot crack or fluff pieces.

Short Angst

Febuwhump2024 Mostly one-shots, some are draft chapters for my bigger fics, especially Hidden Hero because torturing Sky makes me feel big feelings.

Here Now is a short fic collab with the amazing artist @hiimgin over us thinking about how nice it would be for Hyrule to get a hug from the best huggers, Twilight and Sky. She turned it into beautiful art, and I turned it into a whump-lite fic.

Longer Works-In-Progress

Angst-heavy for now, but they have bits of romance, fluff, and crack, and I'm slowly adding more. Update irregularly. If there are things you want to see in them, feel free to tell me and I'll consider it! Feedback keeps me alive.

Hidden Hero: (undergoing rewrites, plz skip to next fic) Prequel to Blood and Blade. Sky has a terrible time during the War of Ages.

(Warrior, I'm coming for you and the battle of Skyloft, someday...)

Blood and Blade: Ghirahim becomes everyone's problem when he ends up in Wild's era. My most ambitious project so far. A lot of elements for this fic and HH were taken from my first LoZ fic, TBD.

Friends and Foes: The start of my Hyrule kick, wherein Hyrule does a very Hyrule thing: gets injured while lost, and makes new friends. They kind of remind him of the Links. What could go wrong?

TBD: my first fanfic, and strictly LoZ set between BotW and TotK for now, though it could become LU. Wild has a terrible time when the Yiga start to recover after BotW. (Romantic fluff in the beginning, and other parts are probably so cringe, but I don't care anymore. I'm allowed to be a little freak. It's unfinished, like all my big fics, and it will probably change a great deal along the way.)

[lennsart]

what is the autism fic about?

this is starting to feel like bullying-WHOSE FEELINGS ARE ETTING HURT???

and b*tch are you okay, is someone having a breakdown in there omg FEED ME

Ooooo you really sniped two of my most dark fics out of the three you chose 😂

I've already answered about "This is starting to feel like bullying" so I'll answer for the other two !

Let's start with the softer one :

- The Autism fic

"The Autism fic" is about... What's in the title ! lmao

It is also one of the Legend-centric one, but everyone has an important role and will get their moment to shine :)

Directly from my notes :

"Everyone is autistic 🎉

Legend has been raised to hide and mask it, and is ""conditionned"" to think it's rude to let autistic traits show

So at first most of the Links are like "wow, what an asshole"

[...]

Time and Wars are going full parents mode, they want everyone to feel comfortable in the group, so they try to protect them from ableism... which Legend does without knowing what it is

So they don't get along well

Actually it's like :

Know they are autistic and what it means :

- Warriors (spent a lot of time researching trauma response and the way the brain worked after the war (firstly to help his friends))

- Time (learned the terms during the war)

- Four (not the exact word, but he knows about neurodivergence)

Know they are "different" :

- Hyrule

- Sky

- Legend

Never really thought about it :

- Twilight (when he was a rancher it perfectly met his needs (I'm sure petting goats when you're overwhelmed is like THE remedy) and afterwards, some people were rude in castletown but he thought it was because he was a villager)

- Wind (is seen as a hyperactive and curious kid but not really more)

Wild is special because he knows, but also think it's because of the 100 years sleep thing ? And who cares, he saved the world and spend most of his time alone anyway."

I have the story planned out and a few scenes written, but it's mostly ideas and random scenes, it's far from being done (and not the wip I'm working on right now !)

Basically, in the downfall timeline people get more scared of difference and intolerant (maybe even because the fallen hero was autistic and they're like "well look how that turned out", but it's... A pretty sad idea). So Legend has been raised to hide it, and have constently been told that the way he acted (stimming, questionning social cues and stuff) was rude, unproper, and more importantly, dangerous for him.

I'll put the beginning here, because it summarize the whole thing pretty well, but I'm sorry for the length of this answer zhehhzehbhbezhez

Snippet :

"Apparently, the weirdness was a hero thing. 

Legend was quite puzzled upon this discovery. He had thought his whole life that the weird was a 'him' thing, and a bad one. That what was natural to him was very rude and that he needed to change it.

[...]

He was used to conceal.

He was used to act, smile and look in the eyes and laugh with everyone else. He was used to control, checking every few minutes if his hands were still and quiet. He was used to pretend to be like everyone else, and to be able to release those barriers when he was home, to collapse for an hour or so in his room, in the dark and under his covers.

Somehow, when he traveled during quests, he got surprised to note that he was less tired from a day of walking and exploring than from a day in town. Somehow he felt more like himself when he was alone on the road and bouncing on his feet when he saw a fun animal that he had never seen before.

Somehow, he had associated that feeling with travels.

And he was quickly understanding, as he spent time with other heroes, that he should have associated it with being alone.

He couldn't rest. Well, no, he could rest, they slept on the road and they didn't overwork themselves, but he couldn't rest like he did at home. 

Because everyone would see, and it wasn't because they had some of the weird that they would accept all of his.

The first few days, he managed. He had met the heroes while in a bad mood, and didn't bother to force any smile he didn't want to. They categorized him as grumpy, and not only was that fair, "grumpy" was an incredibly easier role to act on than "agreeable".

(Probably because it was less polite, but... It was a bit late to be, and they didn't seem to mind too much.)

But after a while, it started to wear him out.

He joked less and mocked more. He was more tired and thus less considerate. He didn't manage his tone as well, nor his facial expressions.

He played with his rings a lot (which was an acceptable way to let out some steam, he had found out while observing adults in town, but only as long as it didn't become obsessive). He felt frustrating needs to just gesticulate nonsensically until his body felt less stiff, less foreign, more... Right.

He didn't feel right, was what it was.

And he resented the other heroes for not making any effort."

- Bitch are u okay

I want to clarify one thing : when a wip have a funny title, most of the time they are speaking to me !

"This is starting to feel like bullying" meant bullying towards Legend, that I kept writing whump about.

So the question "bitch are u okay" is directed towards ME, and the answer is no :D (at least when I started writing this)

This is legit the heaviest wip I worked on :)

To put it simply, Legend is depressed, very much so, and Dark Link feeds off the heroes' negative feelings. This doesn't mix well as you can guess !

The first part of the fic would be a descent to hell. Poor Lege is already struggling, and the more he tries to make an effort and do things, the more he feels like he messes up. So why try at all ?

I think I have written about darker themes, but the fact that this is often Legend's POV makes it kind of... Hard to read, in a way ?

I only write on this wip when I'm either in a good mood and know it won't affect me, or when I struggle and need to vent, no in-between because then it would make me feel down.

And, yeah, Legend is having a breakdown in this one. A big one 😅

But what is important to me is that the second part of the fic is about healing. It's about how having a good support system helps, how healing isn't linear but progress is always progress. It's not just a vent fic, I want Lege to get better, dammit !

The thing is, I like "healing" as a theme for my fictions, and the next long fic I plan on posting also speaks about this (with a twist). I just don't know if I should fuse those two fics (but I'll lose some of what makes them special in both cases) or if I should just assume that I'm always writing the same stories in different fonts 😆

I don't have a big snippet for this one, but just to set the tone, it starts like this :

" It's just one of those days.

Legend wakes up, barely opens his eyes, and suddenly, existing is too hard.

Getting up and eating and talking with friends sounds like torture. Having to wait for the night to be able to curl up under his covers is already an ordeal, and for Nayru's sake he's not even out of his bedroll yet. "

(I'm sorry for the length of this post oh my god now THAT is rambling)

[skyward-floored]

Whumptober Day 29: "What happened to me?"

Continuation to day 22 and 25 :)

Day 22

Day 25

Read on ao3

Warnings: mostly the same as the other ones, blood, injury, some violence, possession, a little creepy vibes

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Warriors is not one to hesitate.

As Time leaps forward to attack the demon (the boy?) and tentacles of pure darkness shoot out from the mask, Warriors is instantly in full battle mode, and begins shouting out orders.

The others snap out of their horrified dazes and go to help Time, dodging shadowy tentacles as thunder booms nearby. The rain begins to come down harder, and visibility grows more difficult, the only truly clear sights Warriors gets of the battle happening when lightning scatters across the sky.

But he doesn’t let it stop him, and Warriors finally locates his first target, grabbing Legend’s shoulder to catch his attention.

“You need to go see if you can find Ravio,” he says a bit breathlessly, dodging a tentacle that comes their way. “He must still be inside, Sheerow wouldn’t have led us here otherwise.”

Legend scowls. “Captain, I’m not going to leave—”

“He may be in trouble, and we don’t know if he has time for us to finish this battle,” Warriors says grimly. “Go find him, Vet. We can handle things for now.”

Legend hesitates, then nods, Sheerow appearing at his shoulder like he’d heard them talking. Legend turns and runs off, and Warriors watches him until he disappears with the little bird into the Eastern Palace.

Then he turns back to the battle, and joins the others in fighting the mask.

Time is fighting the body itself, and while the rest of them are trying to help him, the mask is surprisingly good at multitasking. It picked up a sword somewhere, and while it swings viciously at Time, dark tentacles sweep at the rest of them, keeping them away from the fight.

Time is in no condition to be fighting a demon, Warriors knows that for certain. Between the sleepless nights that have sapped him of energy, and the nightmares and revelations he’s had dropped on him, it’s a wonder he’s even standing.

But there’s strength in desperation. Warriors knows that well.

Wild jumps back from the fight and along with Four, begins firing arrows into the fray. Warriors is glad for the the cover as he dodges another attack. They’re starting to figure out the movements of the battle now, the different attacks up their enemy’s sleeve, and with the archers’ support, begin closing in on Time and the demon.

An arrow flies past Warriors’ shoulder, and someone suddenly screams, piercing and familiar. Warriors is already looking around for who got struck, but when he finally sees where the arrow landed, his brow furrows in confusion.

It’s sprouting from the shoulder of their enemy, but he could have sworn the voice that had screamed was—

“Don’t hurts the person behind the mask!”

At Twilight’s frantic cry, everything Warriors had been wondering and suspected falls neatly into place, and he stares at the body that’s wearing the mask, a cold feeling in his chest. The figure is taller then what he remembers, but the outfit is familiar, even through all the blood and shadows covering it.

Somehow, impossibly, there’s a version of Time under that mask.

The demon seems to have recovered quickly from the arrow in its arm, and it rips it out with a small cry. Then it cackles as it thrusts a tentacle of darkness at Time, nearly throwing him to the ground before he scrambles to dodge it.

“How are we supposed to fight him but not hit him?!” Wild shouts, and Twilight’s reply is drowned out by another roll of thunder.

“How do we know if he’s even alive under there?” Hyrule asks worriedly, swinging at a tentacle nearby, and Warriors looks back at Majora, a tight feeling in his chest.

How indeed.

“We need to get the mask off,” he says as he dodges an attack, “then we’ll... we’ll know. In the meantime, try not to hurt him.”

“Easier said then done,” Sky grunts nearby. “I don’t think he has the same qualms.”

Majora must hear them, for after they have the exchange it grows harder to fight, tentacles lashing, cries ringing out as several of them are knocked to the ground. It begins tearing up bricks from the ground and throwing them as well, and between the projectiles and their reluctance to hit him, the battle begins to turn back in the demon’s favor.

A tentacle lashes forward, and a cry rings out, Warriors turning just in time to see Hyrule hit the ground, hard.

He hears several cries, but can’t get to the traveler through all of the tentacles and projectiles thrown his way. Someone does finally get to Hyrule’s side, Warriors unable to tell who through the rain, and he slices at another tentacle as another shout rings out.

It’s Time’s voice again, but this time it’s not Majora who’s hurt.

Warriors watches as Time grabs at his side, a flash of red visible through the rain as he reels backwards. His heart speeds up, and he tries to fight over to Time’s side, slipping on puddles and avoiding tentacles. Someone else cries out yet again, and Warriors feels ice begin to freeze up his chest.

They’re losing this fight.

He’s still much too far to be of any use to Time, and as he tries desperately to reach him and help, Majora dodging and leaping around, Warriors sees Time’s face harden into a look he knows well.

His heart shoots up into his throat as Time’s hand slips into his pouch, and a white mask is pulled out.

“Sprite don’t!” Warriors shouts across the battlefield, but Time either doesn’t hear him or ignores the words entirely as he slams the mask onto his face.

A tentacle tries to knock Warriors to the ground while he’s distracted, nearly doing the same to him as had been done to Hyrule. And by the time he’s dealt with it and turns back, Time is no longer there, a god fighting in his place.

A high-pitched laugh rings around the area, and Majora leaps around the Fierce Deity’s attacks, moving so fast it’s hard to watch. Lightning flashes, but it’s nothing compared to the way the Deity’s eyes flash as he fights Majora.

Warriors finally makes it within striking distance of the two, but they’re moving so fast he can’t help at all. He waits for an opening, wiping rain out of his eyes and nervously twirling his sword, and as he watches, Majora dodges just the slightest bit too slow.

The Fierce Deity doesn’t hesitate.

He swings his huge sword, glowing an almost electric blue, and strikes the mask right off the boy’s face.

A horrible scream rings around the area, a mixture of the mask and the one who’d been wearing it, and the body topples to the ground, bloody and broken. Majora’s mask flies into the air, bleeding darkness as it turns to the Fierce Deity with its tentacles lashing, and it roars in outrage.

“YOU NEVER PLAY FAIR!” the mask screams, and the fight resumes, the two attacking each other with an increased ferocity.

Warriors doesn’t hesitate in sprinting towards the fallen body, shadows and blood seeping off of him in nearly equal amounts. He drags him away (he’s so light) as far as he can from where the Deity is now fighting the mask with no holds barred, and Warriors carefully flips the boy over, a quiet hitching sound coming from him.

He realizes it’s crying at the same time his eyes settle on the boy’s face.

The features that have been freed look so similar to Mask’s that Warriors startles, nearly forgetting what he’s doing. The face is older, though not by a whole lot, and the blood and injuries and tentacle marks all over him certainly change things. But the shape is there, a mix between the man Warriors knows now and the boy he met during the war, and he feels like he’s been gutted.

He can’t be older then Wild.

The rain puddled beneath the younger Time begin to turn red, and the hitching noises turn to gurgles as the shadows holding him together fade. Warriors shoves his scrambled thoughts aside, and shushes the boy as he pulls out a fairy.

“Hold on kid, hold on,” he murmurs, and the fairy dances over the boy’s rapidly stilling form. Sparkles mix with the rain, and Warriors watches in silence as the most grievous of the boy’s injuries are healed.

Twilight and Wind run up to his side as the fairy finishes, and the hitching sound starts up again, Wind staring at the body in horror.

“Merciful Ordona,” Twilight breathes, and carefully lifts the boy partially onto his lap, shushing him when he makes a noise. “Shh, you’re alright, you’re safe.”

The boy shudders where he’s laying, and Twilight pulls him into a tighter hold, rubbing small circles onto his back. His injuries are by no means completely healed, but they can’t do much for him here, rain pouring on their heads, screams still ringing out.

Screams?

Warriors turns, and sees the Fierce Deity with a foot on Majora’s mask, angry screams and jabbering coming from the demon. The Deity doesn’t hesitate, and plunges his glowing sword through the mask, one final scream ringing out.

Any tentacles left grow still, then fade away, darkness puddling on the ground much like the rain.

A louder hitching sound catches Warriors’ attention, and he turns back to the boy, his eyes flickering as Twilight holds him. He’s looking around with a terrified look in his eyes, tears smearing the blood on his face, and suddenly the Fierce Deity is kneeling beside him, a hand outstretched.

Warriors stiffens, a hand reaching for his sword.

But the Deity’s hand merely rests on the boy’s cheek, notably gently compared to the way he’d been fighting earlier. The younger Time whimpers, and turns into the hold, and Warriors releases his sword, though he keeps it in reach.

“Rest, little one,” the Deity says, surprisingly soft as a finger brushes some blood away. “Your part of this fight is done.”

The boy’s breath hitches again, but his eyes slip closed, and he stills as the Deity gently holds his cheek. Warriors frowns, but Twilight waves him off, gesturing to the boy’s chest going up and down. He’s merely unconscious.

The Deity waits a moment, still looking at the younger Time, then removes his hand and turns to face the three heroes around him.

“The demon is gone,” he says, rain pattering on his armor. “And the one who brought him back is not present. The danger has been eliminated.”

“Are you going to release Time now?” Warriors asks in a voice that’s more of a demand then a question.

The Deity tilts his head, then blinks, looking like he’s studying Warriors’ face.

“My role is finished. You need not worry for your leader.” His hand raises, but he pauses just before taking the mask off, and stares at Warriors with an intense gaze. “Watch out for him and the boy. The upcoming days will not be easy.”

Warriors blinks, but before he can reply, the Deity lifts off his face, and Time kneels where he once did.

He immediately flounders, and Warriors is there with an arm under his shoulder as he lowers him carefully to the ground. Time’s hand goes to his side, blood on his fingers, and Wind scoots over and hands him a potion.

The rain is steady, but the thunder is mostly past, rumbles coming from in the distance. The others slowly converge on where the rest of them kneel, Wild helping Hyrule walk over. One by one they turn to look at the bloodied teenager in Twilight’s lap, and Warriors looks uneasily at Time, the older hero rubbing his forehead.

He looks exhausted, even having drunk a potion, but his face is oddly emotionless as he looks at the younger version of himself. Warriors can feel him shaking where his arm is still slung over his shoulder, and he holds him a little tighter, just like he has been for the past month after he’d woken up screaming.

It was his death he was seeing after all, Warriors thinks as the rock in his stomach shifts. An alternate version, but...

“Is... is that really Time?” Wind asks him quietly, and Warriors looks at the older hero again.

Time doesn’t say anything, rain dripping off his hair.

“In a way,” Warriors says a bit uncertainly. “Do you remember what Legend was saying about Times nightmares, and the Fallen Hero?”

Wind looks confused, and then he pales, a quiet oh escaping his lips as he looks at the young Time again.

“This is him?” Hyrule says a little shakily, and Warriors swallows, nodding without a word. What can he even say?

Wind suddenly perks up, and looks behind them all, some of the light coming back to his eyes.

“Hey look, it’s Ravio!”

Warriors turns and sees Legend exiting the palace with Ravio’s arm slung over his shoulder, the merchant barely able to walk even with his assistance. Wind runs over to help, and Warriors worriedly takes in Ravio’s battered appearance as they approach, though the merchant gives them all a bleary smile.

“Can always count on Mr. Hero,” he says in a shaking voice. “N-never let me down yet.”

“You certainly don’t make it easy,” Legend mutters, though there’s a fondness in his voice. His eyes seem red as well, but nobody mentions it as they look back at the boy in Twilight’s arms.

Legend takes in the sight of him, an unreadable look in his eyes, and then he looks around at the rest of them, soaking wet, exhausted and injured.

He sighs.

“Come on. Let’s head back to my house.”

(...)

It’s more then two days before he wakes up.

They all head back to Legend’s house, wounded in tow, and once they arrive, everyone is properly fussed over. Potions are handed out, bandages wrapped, wet clothes peeled off and set to dry by the fire Legend gets going.

The younger Time is placed in his bed once they heal and bandage him as much as they can, and they carefully coax the story of what happened from Ravio, the merchant still shaky and pale.

He recounts the exact events of Time’s longer dream, Legend sitting beside him the entire time, and when he finishes, Time stands up and leaves the room.

Warriors doesn’t follow. Time needs time to process everything.

Warriors knows he does.

After they’ve all sufficiently rested from... everything, and while they wait for the younger Time to wake, they help Legend clean up his house. It’s something to do, but it doesn’t dispel the strange mood over them all.

There’s relief, that Ravio and everyone else is okay and that Time finally has an uninterrupted night’s sleep, but worry too, since barely anyone got out of the fight without at least a few scratches, and the implications of the enemy they’d fought, and the boy they saved that still hasn’t woken up.

Warriors watches him that first night, his bangs partially obscuring the marks they’d discovered after cleaning him up. They’re from Majora of course, but Warriors hopes they’ll fade, for the boy’s sake at least.

He deserves to not have a reminder of what happened on his face.

He isn’t the only one in the room after another day of cleaning, on the second night they’re there. Though most of the Links are asleep, either on the floor or in chairs, snores drifting across the room. Not everyone is asleep though, and Warriors tries not to stare at where Time is seated by the bed, not quite within arm’s reach.

Twilight is beside him, much closer to the bed, and they keep watch over the sleeping boy, still as ever.

The younger Time suddenly whimpers in his sleep, and before Warriors can move, Twilight runs a hand along his hair, carefully avoiding the bandages by his cheek. The boy stills, and Twilight leans back again, looking at his ancestor with an aching look in his eyes.

“Time,” he asks quietly, the words loud in the silence of the room. “How old is he?”

Time is silent for a long time, and Warriors almost wonders if he’s not going to answer the question.

“Physically... around sixteen,” he says finally, voice not more than a rasp. “Maybe seventeen. I’ve never known exactly how old I was.”

“...mentally?” Twilight asks.

Time closes his eye, and Warriors sees him swallow

“About nine,” he whispers.

Warriors feels like he’s been kicked in the chest, and Twilight looks the same, both of them turning to stare back at the boy lying on bed.

Nine.

Nine.

The boy lying next to them, that had fought Ganon and been killed, setting off Legend and Hyrule’s entire timeline, and then been brought back to life and possessed by Majora and nearly died again due to the Shadow’s meddling was nine years old.

Mask had been eleven.

“Nine?” Twilight chokes out, and Time looks away, shaking his head.

Neither of them know what to say, but Warriors sees how Time’s shoulders curl in, how his eyebrows lower, that same haunted look coming back into his eye. Warriors stands up, making them both look over, then walks over to Time and pulls him into his arms.

He’s not usually one to initiate hugs of all things, but it’s all he feels like he can do.

“I’m so sorry,” Warriors says in his shoulder, and Time seems like he doesn’t know what to do, arms held rigidly at his sides.

“It’s hardly your fault,” he says in a strained voice, and Warriors holds him tighter.

“I know. But I have a feeling you never got an apology.”

Time stares, and then he crumples in Warriors’ arms.

A shaking breath escapes him, and Twilight leans over to put an arm around him as well, Warriors sitting to better out his arms around him.

They hold him in silence as he begins to cry, then sob, and if any of the others wake up from the noise, they don’t say a word.

(...)

The younger Time finally wakes up the next day, when it’s just Warriors, Wind, and Legend in the room.

They’d brought a pile of maps in to sort out and reorganize, figure out which are still useable. One minute Warriors is wondering exactly how many dungeons Legend has gone through, and the next, Wind jumps, staring over at the bed.

Two blue eyes are staring at the three of them, wide and confused-looking.

“He’s awake!” Wind gasps, but Legend puts a hand on his arm, stopping him from running over.

Warriors calmly gets to his feet and goes to his bedside, the blue eyes following him the entire way. He sits down, and gives the boy a careful smile.

“Good morning, Link. We weren’t sure quite when you were going to wake up,” he says kindly.

Link stares at him still, and Warriors grabs the cup of water they’ve kept at the bedside table for this very moment.

“I’m sure you’re thirsty, would you like some water?” he asks gently, and Link nods, zeroing in on the cup with a hungry look. Legend and Wind finally come over, and they help him sit up, the borrowed tunic slipping over one of his shoulders.

Warriors hands him the cup, and though it takes him a few tries, Link manages to hold the cup and drink by himself, eagerly draining the entire thing.

“We’ll get Wild to make you some food too, I’m sure you’re hungry,” Wind says with a smile, and Link swallows, finishing the water.

“Where... what happened?” he asks, looking down at himself, eyes going wide at the bandages, and Warriors and Legend exchange looks.

“...Maybe you’d better see for yourself,” Legend says, and grabs a hand mirror from a table nearby. Warriors raises an eyebrow, and Legend rolls his eyes. “It’s not magic, it’s a regular mirror.”

That hadn’t been what Warriors was raising his brow at, though the assurance is nice.

Legend hands it over to Link, and he stares, taking in the bandages and pale color of his face, and especially the markings that are still visible on his skin. He raises a hand, and stares at that as well, looking at the bandages wrapped over his wrist.

“Wh... what happened to me?” he asks in a small voice, running a shaky hand along the lines on his face.

Something flashes across his face, and he sets down the mirror, pulling up his tunic with a shaking hand. Link stares at the bandages covering the worst of the injuries across his middle, and places a hand on his stomach.

He suddenly freezes, eyes going even wider, and Warriors immediately recognizes the look of someone remembering.

“I died,” he says in a small voice, and Warriors breathes out, then nods.

“You did,” he agrees quietly. “But you’re not dead anymore, Link. You’re safe.”

“I... I wasn’t,” Link continues, and puts his hand back on the marks on his face with a shaken look. “There was... was something in my head. I remember, I was fighting, I fought really hard but it wouldn’t let me go, and it hurt and I wanted to be dead again but...”

He looks at Warriors, face pale and eyes watering.

“Y-you all saved me.”

“We did,” Wind says confidently, and pats Link’s hand with a smile. “We got rid of Majora. Time split the mask in two while pieces, there’s no coming back from that.”

Link lets out a strange noise, his breathing speeding up, and Warriors takes his hands in his. He holds them steady, feeling the way they’re shaking, and waits until Link looks up and meets his eyes.

“He’s gone, Link. You’re safe, and you’re alive,” Warriors says softly.

Link’s lip trembles, and suddenly his face is pressed against Warriors’ shoulder, quiet cries coming from him. Warriors puts his arms around him, and runs a hand through his hair, suddenly seeing so many similarities to Mask and Time that it makes his heart feel like it’s going to break in two.

“Thank you,” Link chokes out, and Warriors holds him a little tighter as his breath hitches. “Th-thank you, I—”

His words break off into a hiccup, and Wind can’t take it anymore and jumps up to hug him as well. Legend puts a bracing hand on his shoulder, something heavy in his gaze, and Warriors realizes that the others have come into the room, likely brought by the sounds of Link’s cries.

They don’t intrude on the hug, but they stay close, and Warriors meets Time’s eye for a split second before he looks away.

“Shh, you’re okay Sprite,” Warriors says softly, and despite the fact that the boy he’s holding can’t have heard the nickname before, he relaxes slightly at it. “You’re safe.”

He holds him a little tighter, and doesn’t direct his next words solely at the boy in his arms, but rather the one he knows is also trying not to cry only a few feet away.

“It’ll be okay.”

[bokettochild]

Hyrule and Twilight for click/clack please!! :D - 🌼

Alright! So I did a re-read, and I'm sort of surprised, but here's the result

There's only one actual interaction between these two specifically before the Sunset arc

Hyrule is trying to crack a joke about Time in the Masks comic, and Twilight is Not Having It. This gives me the impression that Hyrule is using humor as a tool to try and connect with the other heroes, something he actually does a few other times, teasing and joking at the others (especially Warriors) in order to break the ice. As we know, it worked with Wars, because those two are pretty close, but with Twilight, it's met with dead silence; Twilight doesn't appreciate Hyrule's humor, and he flat out just ignores Hyrule's joke beyond this look.

It's not until Sunset that we actually see another interaction between these two. (Which is basically the length of the whole comic so far) Until he reaches the inn, Hyrule doesn't actually know Twilight is Wolfie

Once he knows though, he doesn't get all worried and fussy like the others. In fact, Hyrule seems to be pretty harsh about some things

He approaches Twilight's situation with force, with intent. He's level headed, although clearly upset by Twilight's despair, and immediately tries redirecting from Twilight's talk of sadness and worry by presenting what he's going to do to fix it, something he's fiercely determined to actually do, no matter the difficulty.

One could say Hyrule is concentrating, and that's what that scowl is for, but I think he's actually being a bit harsh with Twilight because this situation bothers him. Not just upsets him, not just because Twilight's hurt, but there seems to be a sort of disconnect between these two, and it frustrates him, especially since he can't resolve it with Twilight like this, and that shows through in how Hyrule handles Twilight's behavior throughout Sunset.

He's not despairing. Hyrule's worried, but it's not crushing. That disconnect that stops him from feeling intense concern is still there. Twilight is a person who needs help to Hyrule, not a brother on the brink of death; a patient.

That right there? Some good bedside manner. He's being friendly and gentle now, but I can promise you, I've seen doctors take a similar tone and expression with folks.

Hyrule's choice to say "deal with" also makes me wonder. Sure, he's a guy, they mess around and tease like this, and we've already established that Hyrule teases a lot already; that said "deal with" might betray that he thinks Twilight maybe only tolerates some of them, including himself (he's got the self doubt to make you wonder).

That said, he's softening here. He cares, clearly. They're not close, but he still values Twilight if only as a team-mate.

The turning point comes here though

This is the first time Twilight has smiled at Hyrule. The first time either of them have called the other anything vaguely affectionate. This is when they agree that they are now friends. Hyrule says it in a dismissive way, almost suggestive as if testing the waters. Twilight's affirmative "my friend" settles it though. It's a new thing still, and clearly they have precious little in common, but I think Twilight's healing was the ✨traumatic bonding experience✨ they both needed to actually click a bit.

So! To recap:

Twilight and Hyrule don't interact much, and Twilight previously rebuffed Hyrule's attempts to be friendly with him. They aren't close at all through most of the comic so far, and there's definitely a bit of a clash between them, although unspoken. it's Twilight recognizing Hyrule's skill, effort and aid that has that barrier resolving somewhat and opening up the possibility of friendship. Going forwards, they have potential to get along better and be good friends, but this is still pretty new, so it might take a while, especially with how differently they approach life and this particular venture.

Result: Mostly Clack (newly Clicked)